NEW YORK CITY—The 60 Thompson in New York City’s Soho neighborhood is all grown up. So too is Jason Pomeranc, youngest son to developer Jack and brother to Michael and Lawrence, who helped launch the Big Apple’s boutique boom when he and his family opened the property in 2001.
A lot has changed since then, Jason Pomeranc said.
Just look at Soho. What used to be a bohemian neighborhood for the city’s starving artists has since gentrified, with multimillion-dollar condos and global retailers adding a new layer to the neighborhood’s air of boutique chic.
“It’s richer. It’s more eclectic. It’s more layered,” Pomeranc said. “And it’s really emblematic of where our brand is going forward”—that brand being Sixty Hotels.
The Sixty story started with 60 Thompson. What began as a standalone hotel quickly grew into boutique chain Thompson Hotels, which Pomeranc and his brothers merged with Joie De Vivre in 2013 to form Commune Hotels + Resorts. They then left Commune and started Sixty Hotels, taking the 60 Thompson—now the Sixty Soho—with them.
The Pomeranc collective has spent the past year renovating and reimagining the property. It’s become more mature, sophisticated and no-fuss, Pomeranc said.
That aesthetic has carried into the rest of the Sixty Hotels portfolio, which comprises three properties in New York and another in Beverly Hills, California. A fourth is scheduled to open in October in Miami Beach. On the docket for 2016: Sixty’s fifth hotel, located in Montreal.
During a main stage Q&A at the recent Boutique Hotel Investment Conference hosted by the Boutique & Lifestyle Lodging Association, Pomeranc talked Sixty, the evolution of the boutique sector and the real role of food and beverage in hotels.
Small and savvy
There are lot of bigger boys and girls in the boutique sector. But being small has its advantages, Pomeranc said.
“The flexibility of a smaller company or smaller boutique brand is really where the industry’s going for the truly impactful, great projects,” Pomeranc said.
The big-brand takes on boutique are somewhat rigid in their approaches, which makes it difficult to adapt market by market.
“As an operator, if you can’t change with it, you’re obviously going to get left behind,” Pomeranc said.
Shooting for 4 stars
Accelerating the boutique segment’s meteoric rise in the hotel industry is the financial viability of the 4-star segment, Pomeranc said.
The rooms can be smaller. The design can be higher-end. And the customer mix allows for profitable mix of on-site amenities and F&B.
“Investment institutions have figured out that 4-star products award you the great opportunity for economic growth and flexibly,” he said. “As an economic model, your cost basis is much better building a 4-star hotel and charging 4-star-plus prices.”
But such success breeds competition. A lot of competition. That’s why developers spend as much time studying psychographics as they do demographics, Pomeranc said.
“It’s quite a torturous process, which is one I enjoy,” he added. “You really need to look at it like a puzzle, and each part needs to work in different ways.”
Why F&B?
“The primary reason why food and beverage has become such a driving factor is it’s become a (vehicle) to have locals do your marketing work for you,” Pomeranc said.
The best restaurants create buzz. They become must-go destinations for locals and guests alike. And they keep people coming back time and time again.
“The problem,” Pomeranc said, “is it’s become such an important factor that many lending institutions are using it as an economic model to justify high-cost-basis projects.”
You can’t duplicate volume in New York in fringe locations or other cities, he said.
“Use it as a great branding vehicle; use it as a service amenity for your guest … but don’t use it to justify your entire project cost,” Pomeranc said.
Trailblazing the next frontiers
Soho was very much off the beaten path when 60 Thompson opened. Pomeranc said he likes playing in those fringe locations, citing Austin, Texas; and Portland, Oregon, as examples.
“You have a much more open-minded local community that’s moving there and embracing different concepts of engagement,” Pomeranc said.
That said, the gateways will always be gateways. Sixty already has New York and Miami under its belt. High on Pomeranc’s list of targets? London.
“The global markets are the global markets for a reason,” he said.