Arrival at The St . Regis Chicago .
INVESTMENT
INSIDE THE DEAL
Gencom blows into the Windy City with St . Regis Chicago buy
INVESTING IN LUXURY HOTELS IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART , BUT GENCOM HAS A STRONG TICKER .
By DAVID EISEN
Investing in luxury hotels is not a timorous pursuit . It calls for a level of intrepidness , of boldness : there is a risk to it all , sure , but the upside can be remarkable .
For Gencom , the Miami-based investment firm , acquiring and repositioning luxury hotels is almost prosaic : they ’ ve been doing it for more than two decades now , becoming one of the indomitable forces in the luxury investment space .
Its latest acquisition fits snugly into its strategy . The St . Regis Chicago , which opened in May , is impressive and massive . The hotel , located in the city ’ s Lakeshore East Loop community , occupies the first 11 floors within three interconnected towers comprising guestrooms and branded residences . It is Chicago ’ s third tallest building and the 10th tallest building in the U . S . and was designed by American architect Jeanne Gang , who also designed Aqua in Chicago , and her architectural firm Studio Gang Architects .
Karim Alibhai founded Gencom in 1987 and in its nascent years the firm focused on the limited-service , full-service and extended-stay segments . It pivoted in the late 1990s and began to lean into luxury and branded residences , with successful investments in such assets as The Ritz-Carlton , Key Biscayne , The Ritz-Carlton , Philadelphia and The Ritz-Carlton , Bachelor Gulch in Colorado . Since then , it ’ s put together a formidable portfolio that includes other luxury hotels such as Four Seasons Papagayo in Costa Rica and Rosewood and Fairmont properties in Bermuda . Its portfolio is valued at around $ 7 billion , which includes real estate holdings and operating platform interests . ( Gencom is an investment partner in management company Pyramid Global Hospitality and also the
28 hotelsmag . com Jul / Aug 2023