GREENWICH, Conn. --
The famed Hotel de Crillon in Paris will serve as the inspiration
for a new chain of luxury hotels developed under the name Crillon
by the Starwood Capital Group.
The Starwood
Capital Group, an investment management firm headed by former
Starwood Hotels & Resorts CEO and founder Barry Sternlicht,
last August, acquired the Louvre Hotels portfolio of 14 properties
-- including the Hotel de Crillon -- in part of a $2.5 billion deal
that included Taittinger, the French champagne maker. Starwood
Capital Group intends to sell Taittinger.
Plans for the Crillon
chain could include opening properties in locations such as
Barcelona, Spain; Beijing; Chicago; Dubai, United Arab Emirates;
Hong Kong; Las 
Vegas;
London; Los Angeles; New Delhi, India; New York; Rome; Shanghai; or
Tokyo. The chain is also expected to encompass resort destinations
in the Caribbean and the Far East, as well as ski
locations.
Starwood Capitol
intends to renovate the original 147-room Hotel de Crillon, which
is one of only six six-star hotels in all of Paris.
Sternlicht
indicated that he intends to grow the Crillon chain in much the
same way that he did the St. Regis chain into becoming one of
Starwood Hotels top brands. There was only one St. Regis Hotel when
Starwood acquired the luxury brand from ITT in 1998, Sternlicht
said in a statement.
In my 10-year
tenure as CEO [of Starwood hotels], we were able to grow the brand
to a dozen hotels open or under construction and a significant
pipeline under development, including the recently completed St.
Regis San Francisco, he said. Utilizing the backing of the $2.4
billion raised by Starwood Capital [last year], we will build and
partner with global developers to expand [the Crillon] brand into
the worlds most important travel markets.
Starwood Capital
indicated that future Crillon properties would emulate the
original. The hotel opened in 1909 in a building that dates back to
1758. It is a favorite for heads of state and celebrities. It also
is home to Les Ambassadeurs, one of the top restaurants in the City of
Light.
With the travel
industry experiencing tremendous growth in many regions of the
world, the time is right to launch a new, premium luxury hotel
brand like the Crillon, Sternlicht said. The luxury travel market
is one of the fastest growing segments in the industry and none of
the existing luxury hotel brands are offering the style of European
luxury and class that we envision and that the Hotel de Crillon in
Paris has been providing for nearly a century.
To contact
reporter Michael Milligan, send e-mail to [email protected].