Schulze reveals details about Solis brand

NEW YORK -- Horst Schulze, the hotelman who rose to prominence as he led the development of the Ritz-Carlton brand, this week made it official: He is in the business again of creating the latest and greatest in upscale hotel products.

This time, the product is a line of hotels and resorts -- with the Solis brand name -- that he believes will fill a wide open gap at the top end of the hotel marketplace.

He announced the names and locations of the first six properties (five in the U.S. and one in Germany) and their debut dates (the first, Solis Hotel Chicago, is scheduled to open in late spring 2006).

After leaving Ritz-Carlton when he was vice chairman, in 2002, Schulze formed West Paces Hotel Group, where he currently serves as CEO, with a number of other former Ritz-Carlton executives to create and operate hotels in selected upscale markets. The executive vice president and COO is Robert Warman, who was Ritz-Carltons vice president of operations worldwide.

Schulze said the group developed the Solis concept based on extensive research -- and, he added, West Paces surveys suggest there is a second possible niche for his group. If additional research bears out that belief, he said, West Paces will roll out another brand before year end, but he declined to be more specific.

Meanwhile, as for the new Solis: How can Schulze claim the need to build a new, better upmarket, service-oriented hotel business when he already is credited with something like that at Ritz-Carlton?

In response, he said, The market changes. It is 20 years later. It is not to say we will be just better. ... We want to respond to market developments.

Today, he said, the customer is no longer likely to slip into a hotel in subdued clothes, take his or her key and retire quietly to the room. That was 20 years ago, he said. (Twenty years ago also coincides with Schulzes earliest days at Ritz-Carlton, which he joined in 1983.)

Today, it is the next generation, he continued, and the customer is screaming for attention ... he is saying I am here and pay attention to me.

This translates into a demand for the ultimate in reliable service plus an expectation that we will take care of you, Schulze said. This customer wants his hotel to be an experience, not just a place to sleep. All these things require a different process, he said.

West Paces is looking ahead, too, toward the next 18 years, Schulze added, because, in that period of time, it is expected that the market for top-of-the-line products of all types will grow as more and more baby boomers come into their later years with money to spend and a growing appreciation of the finer things.

The first six properties -- some new builds, some redevelopments -- are mostly domestic, but Schulze said, the company will, of course, be global because its customers travel globally. Besides, he added, it cannot be a viable global company without a New York property.

Five of the six first properties are mixed-use projects, as well, with about 30% of the real estate in residential units, some of which will be available part of the time for rental along with the rest of hotel or resort inventory. The residential offerings help underwrite the development of the hotels, spokesmen said.

The first six properties, in order of projected debut, are:

  To contact the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail to Nadine Godwin at [email protected].