DEVELOPMENT
going 25 feet below the Hudson River.”
The hotel used a secant design system, a two-year effort that involves deep excavation and a special type of retaining wall that creates a watertight barrier.
A luxury property is only as good as its delivery. Staffing has a“ Top Gun” feel to it: hire the best of the best. Fouquet’ s New York’ s executive director of sales, Diana Chan, came from Faena Group and the consistent, luxury-award-winning Faena Hotel Miami Beach. Perhaps Caspi’ s biggest coup was prying the general manager away from the Crosby Street Hotel, another New York property known to attract a famous clientele. He calls GM Michael McGinley the heartbeat of the hotel and liaison between Barrière and Caspi Development.
“ We weren’ t really on the map as formidable until people started to see what it was all about; then the performance started to kick in,” Caspi said.
Staying on trend, the hotel also boasts a private members’ club. It’ s part of the hotel’ s program to generate ancillary revenue out of every square foot of expensive real estate. It’ s a lesson Caspi learned from his friend, Bruce Beal, Jr., president and partner of Related Companies, the prominent New York real estate developer behind such
A guestroom living area with views out on New York. projects as the Equinox Hotel in Hudson Yards. His advice: monetize every square inch. Consider Titsou Bar: It’ s a sexy, covert space in the evening, but night turns into day. When the sun breaks, the curtain is pulled back, and the bar serves as a meeting space offering light food and beverage.
Brasserie Fouquet’ s and the spa are large sources of ancillary revenue, the latter benefitting from a high volume of sales in product and clothing.
MADE IN NEW YORK Caspi Development has been a mainstay in New York real estate since the 1950s when Caspi’ s grandfather, Joseph, started the business. In the 1990s, under the leadership of Caspi’ s father, Steven, the company diversified its portfolio to include hotels. The Chambers Hotel on 56th Street was the first hotel Caspi built, and it did it in good company, alongside tandem developers Ira Druckier and Richard Born, and designer David Rockwell. Caspi compares hotels to works of art that guests— the audience— get to appreciate.
Caspi grew up in the Westchester suburb of Rye, N. Y., about 45 minutes north of Manhattan. For several years he lived in Miami, where he was doing condominium projects in South Beach and Bay Harbor. In 2009, he moved back to New York, in what he called“ an epic time” of picking up distressed properties expectorated from the maw of the Global Financial Crisis.
It was around this time that Caspi leaned into office, buying up small buildings and leasing them out to tech companies and other growth businesses.“ We had great timing,” he said. COVID, however, crushed office along with other asset classes, though like any cycle, Caspi now sees class-A office as a growth story.
Fouquet’ s New York is the diamond in Caspi’ s portfolio, but it also has hotels up and down the chain scale, including a Midwest three-pack Residence Inn, Hilton Garden Inn and Courtyard by Marriott, where ADRs are considerably lower than Fouquet’ s. Caspi is known to on occasion send his Midwest GMs copies of Fouquet’ s STAR report just to give them a laugh. There is little regret for Caspi. In Greenwich, Conn., where he lives, he is currently building a 75-unit“ ultra-luxury” condo building on land he bought two years ago. One lament he has was not adding a residential component to Fouquet’ s New York, but he said he is considering a condo project next door, though there is no timetable.
The same could be said for future Fouquet’ s hotels. Earlier this month, a hotel and residential project backed by the Fouquet’ s brand in Miami’ s Design District was announced with an anticipated opening in 2030. Caspi is not the developer on the project.
Beyond Miami, other locations are on the radar, including resort and ski locations, such as Aspen, Deer Valley and Cabo San Lucas.“ I’ d love to do one in Beverly Hills,” Caspi said, before adding Palm Beach to the wish list. Outside the U. S., Fouquet ' s Mykonos opens in June.
“ Fouquet’ s is definitely on the radar now; it’ s substantiated itself,” he said.“ Our RevPAR index surpasses all the top hotels in the city. We’ ve proven the business model.”
28 hotelsmag. com May / June 2026