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 Unique Hotels & Resorts New York City Hotel Cluster is Prototype for Future Expansion
Corporate Profile
 
New York, N.Y. July 1999 - New York bound, Unique Hotels & Resorts Inc., a premier operator of small luxury hotels in resorts destinations and clustered in urban centers, consider its New York City cluster a prototype for future expansion. These small properties are unlike each other physically, but each is uniquely stylish and of the moment, consistent in personalized service and unusual amenities, and intimate and welcoming.

The Hotel Wales, once a seemingly blighted structure, contained intrinsic beauty which became apparent during its total rehabilitation in 1988. Its birthright was further restored with the installation of historically appropriate enhancements. When it reopened as the swan it has become, it offered proof that ugly ducklings need not be torn down. The Franklin nearby was restored and reopened in 1992, becoming the first sister hotel to Hotel Wales.

With The Franklin, noteworthy period historical details were restored, walls were not torn down, and stylish but affordable furnishings were installed. With each addition to the cluster-The Shoreham and then The Mansfield, both off Fifth Avenue, and The Roger Williams on lower Madison Avenue - the technique was honed, enabling management to pass along savings to guests in the form of New York's most value-driven room rates.

Guests at Hotel Wales, The Franklin, The Shoreham, The Mansfield and The Roger Williams find more than stylish, comfortable accommodations at great prices, though when they step through the door, they step into a world of art, music, literature and amenities which ensure that they really enjoy their stay. These create a mindset for guests in their public spaces with museum-quality art and furniture as well as in guest rooms, with numbered photographs and prints on the walls, and VCRs and CD players so that guests may select from each hotel's extensive CD library, which includes full-stereo videos of every 1995/96 Metropolitan Opera production. The offerings are not only thoughtful; they also offer guests a chance to relax with some of the favorite things they may not find time for at home.

The hotels are also venues for live culture, providing work and a wonderful showcase for many fine musicians. Nightly harp recitals at the Mansfield and piano music with breakfast at Hotel Wales are free of charge, and both hotels offer chamber music concerts and recitals - Sundays at Hotel Wales and Mondays at The Mansfield

In addition to food for thought, each Unique property offers a complimentary continental breakfast with homemade granola and freshly baked creme fraiche coffee cake, raisin bran muffins and brioche bread with seasonal fruit compote. The popularity of the signature breakfast paved the way for additional 10:00 p.m. complimentary dessert buffet consisting of biscotti, lemon tarts and a chocolate dessert - all freshly prepared in the Mansfield's bakery for guests at all of Unique's New York hotels.

The hotels do away with the pomp and circumstance of more expensive hostelries and create the individualized ambiance of small "Left Bank" properties, giving travelers residential comfort, in a chic but practical setting, at a reasonable price. This translates further into amenities like cedar closets, complimentary mineral water in all guest rooms, free maps and museum guides, plush Irish cotton bath towels, bathroom telephones, hair dryers, European-style shower heads and Neutrogena toiletries.

Despite their distinct personalities, Unique's New York hotels have much in common, starting with value. Rates are surprisingly low for such well-located properties that offer both style and comfort.  The comfortable design of all furnishings, the home-style amenities the attention to detail and lack of add on  charges are consistent amongst the hotels. Unique's style of operation is so different from other hotel organizations, it defies categorization. But occupancy rates talk, and the many guests who return again and again to these Unique hotels  - culture mavens to Hotel Wales, models to The Franklin and the Roger Williams, European executives and media moguls to The Shoreham, corporate, literary and arts figures to The Mansfield - keep those figures at the level of a shout.
 
 

Unique Hotels & Resorts
Corporate Profile

With its recent management takeover of five of New York's most distinctive boutique hotels the Hotel Wales, The Mansfield, The Shoreham, The Roger Williams and The Franklin -Unique Hotels & Resorts took the first steps toward the development of a national group of intimate, luxury properties situated in major urban centers and known for their individuality and personalized service.

As evidenced by its New York collection, Unique hotels are characterized by a sense of place derived from their historic context, fine architecture and custom design. The aim is to be stylish rather than trendy, to deliver the services and amenities of a five-star property without the "pomp and circumstance," thus combining the residential ambiance and caring attitude sought after by discerning business and leisure travelers. By managing its properties collectively, Unique is able to provide this level of comfort and service at far greater value than larger, more expensive hotels.

While each property in the collection possesses its own persona, all offer such signature Unique Hotels & Resorts' amenities as complimentary European breakfast; 24-hour espresso / cappuccino / tea bars; down comforters, Belgian linens, Irish towels and complimentary mineral water in the rooms; video and CD lending libraries; and telephones with data ports and voicemail - and all boast a friendly, responsive, professionally trained staff ready to meet guests' every need.

Using its successful New York properties as a "blueprint," Unique Hotels & Resorts and its principals Carlos C. Lopes and L.K. Eric Prevette, veteran hoteliers with a combined 50 years experience managing four- and five-star properties, are poised to assemble an array of similar properties in such business-destination cities as Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago and Washington, D.C. As part of this effort, Unique already has the Beverly Crescent in Beverly Hills under management.

At the same time, Unique, backed by financing from various partners, is actively engaged in a parallel endeavor to acquire resorts in South Beach, Florida; Southern California; Arizona; New Mexico, and the Caribbean.

Unique will operate the spectacular, 91-room CuisinArt Resort & Spa now under construction in Anguilla, B.W.I.. The first new five - star property to open in the Caribbean in eight years, the CuisinArt is expected to become one of the premier Caribbean resorts when it opens in late 1999. Located on Rendezvous Bay, one of the most beautiful white sand beaches in the islands, the resort will feature custom interiors by Antonio Ferrarri of Milan and its own hydroponic gardens to supply fresh produce.

Formerly known as the International Windsor Group, Unique Hotels & Resorts and its team was deeply involved in the restoration of the historic Mission Inn in Riverside, Calif., which it continues to manage.

The Mission Inn is just one success story in the history of Unique's Co-Managing Directors, Lopes and Prevette, who have a long track record of achieving high returns for the hotels in their portfolio as well as turning troubled properties into profit makers. In the past 12 years, they have provided management services for such hotels and resorts as the Hotel Bel - Air, Los Angeles; the Cap Jaluca Resort, Anguilla; Grand Hotel du Cap Ferrat, France; and the Bel-Air resorts in Costa Careyes and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, among others. The two are credited with the near - miraculous turnaround of the famed Biltmore in downtown Los Angeles, which had gone from grand dame to dowager until the two partners, with a combination of shrewd management and property enhancements, returned it to profitability. Earlier, as senior executives at Rosewood, they were involved in the development of the Mansion at Turtle Creek in Dallas and the Hana - Maui in Hawaii.

Prior to forming Unique Hotels and its predecessor companies, Lopes was senior vice - president of Rosewood Hotels and also served as the chief marketing executive for Four Seasons Hotels for 11 years. Prevette's previous involvement's encompass positions as the senior vice-president and chief financial officer of Rosewood Hotels, and as senior vice-president of Dallas-based Southland Financial Corporation.

In addition to their extensive professional responsibilities, Unique's principals are also active in several charitable organizations, including:

  • Manhattan Beach Education Foundation -    for which they have helped raised more than $300,000 to support arts, science and technology programs in the public schools.
  • California Medical Center  where they have served on the board of directors and contributed more than $50,000 to the children's recovery ward.
  • Shelter Partnership - an organization for the homeless which they helped to launch in 1989.
Unique Hotels & Resorts, Inc., currently maintain offices in New York City and Los Angeles at:
  • 350 Fifth Avenue, Suite 4218, New York, NY 10118. Tel: (212) 967-9929 
  • 840 Apollo Street, Suite 314, El Segundo CA 90245. Tel: (310) 615-4511
 
Carlos C. Lopes
Co-Managing Director

Co-Managing Director Carlos C. Lopes, brings a wealth of expertise in luxury' hotel management to his role as a managing partner of Unique Hotels & Resorts. Prior to forming Unique, Lopes served as co-chairman of its predecessor companies, International Windsor Group and the Bel-Air Hotel Management Company where he had day-to-day responsibility for marketing and operations. During this period he not only became recognized for his management expertise, but also developed a reputation as a troubleshooter able to turn around under performing properties.

Previously, he served for four years as senior vice-president for marketing of Rosewood Hotels and for eleven years as chief marketing executive of Four Seasons Hotels. In these positions, he was involved in the positioning and launching of more than 20 hotels and resorts. He entered the hospitality industry as a management trainee with Hilton International where be became familiar with all facets of hotel operations.

Lopes serves on the Board of Directors of the Manhattan Beach Education Foundation and California Medical Center, and is an active member of the California Business Association.

A native of Lisbon, Portugal, Lopes holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Sir George Williams University in Canada and has completed post-graduate programs at the University of Toronto and the Canadian Institute of Management.

L.K. Eric Prevette
Co-Managing Director

L.K. Eric Prevette, Co-Managing Director of Unique Hotels & Resorts is known for his strategic and financial planning expertise in the hospitality industry. Prevette formerly served as co-chairman of International Windsor Group and the Bel-Air Hotel Management Company, where in addition to his financial responsibilities, he directed new development and labor resources.

In the preceding decade, he reserved as the Chief Financial Executive with Rosewood Hotels and Southland Financial Corporation and also directed the development of eleven hotel and resort properties.

Prevette began his career with the international accounting firm of Price Waterhouse & Company. He earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Texas and an undergraduate degree in finance from High Point College. He also completed the International Studies Program at the University of North Carolina

He is active in the American Hotel and Motel Association, the Southern California Business Association and the Texas Real Estate Association.

 
 
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Contact:
Terri Dishman
Global Communications
Tel: (310) 615-4545 
E-mail: [email protected]
 
Also See: Developers Michael J. Brenneman and Jeff Selby Open the Teatro, 116 Room Boutique Hotel in Denver / Jan 1999 
Unique Hotels & Resorts Completes $11 Million in Renovations at Shoreham and Mansfield Hotels in NYC / July 1999 
The State of Independents / Rick Swig / RSBA Associates / 1998 

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