Thompson Hotels and Joie de Vivre Hospitality, which merged last fall, donned a new name for the parent company, Commune Hotels & Resorts, and said the company will debut a new brand later this year.
Commune Hotels, which was temporarily known as JT Hospitality after the merger, has more than 40 hotels under brands such as Thompson, Saguaro and a number of independently named properties in California under the Joie de Vivre umbrella.
Since the merger, the company has reached agreements for new Thompson hotels in Chicago and Miami and debuted operations overseas this month with the opening of Belgraves hotel in London.
Commune Hotels will also start operating its first Hawaii property next month when it takes over the 125-room Seaside Hotel in Waikiki.
Joie de Vivre and Thompson merged in October to create a coast-to-coast presence for what had been two independent companies based on opposite sides of the country: Joie de Vivre in San Francisco and Thompson in New York.
Commune Hotels is strictly a branding and management entity and doesn't include real estate holdings, though it does have access to the $150 million hotel-acquisitions fund created by John Pritzker, Commune's co-chairman and a former Hyatt executive.
The company later this year plans to introduce what it calls a "design-driven, value-oriented" brand that appears to be similar to what Ian Schrager is doing with his new Public brand.
Commune's plan for the Seaside Hotel in Waikiki includes a $3 million renovation before it joins the Joie de Vivre Collection.
United Airlines, which had been using the 42-year-old hotel as a perk for house employees and company retirees, is selling the property, which is located about three blocks from the beach and about halfway between the Hilton Hawaiian Village to the north and Kapiolani Park to the south.
When upgrades are completed in December, the hotel will be rebranded, Commune said.
Commune Hotels is bringing in Anthony Laurino to upgrade the property. Laurino worked on the redesign of Joie de Vivre's Custom Hotel and the Barlo restaurant at the Hotel Erwin. Both properties are in Los Angeles.
Neither United nor Commune officials would disclose who's buying the property, though Commune spokeswoman Lori Lincoln confirmed that the Pritzker fund wasn't acquiring the hotel.
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