LOS ANGELES—Officials with Proper Hospitality are looking for a certain kind of clientele.
The new luxury brand, born from the same minds that created Viceroy Hotels, will seek to unite wealthy, creative guests, said Brian De Lowe, president and co-founder of Proper.
“I think the industry has changed a lot since (first opening Viceroy Hotels),” he said. “At that point, we delivered a really interesting product from a design perspective and used design as the main element to drive the success of that property.”
De Lowe, who is also president and principal at The Kor Group, said design is no longer enough.
“Our creative-class customer is more sophisticated today,” he said. “They’re looking for more than a beautifully designed property. They want everything from interesting (food and beverage) to cultural connections and interesting programs to unique experience. We’re looking more to some private clubs out there for inspiration than existing boutique lifestyle hotels. And we’re looking at types of properties that are not always going to be the traditional boutique hotel.”
That idea is true with the brand’s first operating property, the 200-unit Hollywood Proper Residences, which opened in June and is half extended-stay hotel space and half unfurnished luxury apartments. The property is located near the headquarters of several media companies, including Viacom, and De Lowe said it gives guests the conveniences of a hotel but helps them feel more like they’re living in the area instead of visiting.
“It combines that residential feel and expansive spaces of home,” he said. “It’s for travelers who want a space that feels more familiar than a hotel coming to town for weeks or months, so they can feel more like a citizen than a tourist.”
He said beyond the dollars and cents piece of development, the brand seeks out locations that are attractive to creative types.
“Generally speaking, we seek out emerging neighborhoods that are attracting entrepreneurs and visionaries,” he said. “I can imagine growing in any geographic region that fits that.”
The build up to launch
De Lowe said The Kor Group has been working on launching Proper since the company essentially exited the hotel business in 2012, when it sold its final stakes in Viceroy Hotels. From that point, the company spent approximately three years finding real estate, and the past year has been about the launch of Proper Hospitality as a management company.
De Lowe said Proper will manage hotels under two brands—Proper and Avalon. He said the company returned to its roots with its first Avalon, taking over what was the company’s first Viceroy hotel and rebranding it as the Avalon Palm Springs.
He said the combination of newness and track record puts Proper in a unique position.
“We’re a new company with two decades of experience,” De Lowe said.
He said while the new management company has some significant updates—such as a refreshed brand vision and state-of-the-art back-end systems—the lessons learned at Viceroy provide huge advantages, including knowing it’s better to hold on to the operations side of the business.
“In the Viceroy days, we learned the importance of staying really entrepreneurial as a company,” he said. “When we started, that was a key aspect of how we ran our properties. We had our owner-operator hats on, but as we brought in different investors, a lot of that style of management went away. So one thing that is really important to us is ensuring that’s the way we’ll continue to operate.”
Proper’s goals
With one property open, Proper has seven more Avalon and Proper hotels in the pipeline, all but one of which are in California.
De Lowe said five Proper properties are expected to open within the next two years, the first of which is the San Francisco Proper. He said that hotel is a converted historic property in a “hot neighborhood” at the former site of the Renoir Hotel on Market Street. He said he’s excited about the potential for the brand in that market.
“It’s such a high-end, unique, creative city,” De Lowe said. “It really needed a high-end hotel that combines the pampering of a traditional luxury hotel with design elements and experiences you find in boutique hotels outside of San Francisco. I couldn’t think of a better market for the Proper brand.”
Next on the docket are two new-build hotels, one in Santa Monica and the other in Austin, Proper’s lone property outside of California.
De Lowe said Proper executives are currently eyeing locations around the country, and he added the initial growth in California is “more opportunistic and through our relationships than feeling the brand would only work on the West Coast.”
“We’re actively looking at opportunities in New York, Miami and Nashville,” he said.
De Lowe said the “sweet spot” for the brand’s hotel properties will be between 150 and 200 rooms.