THE INTERVIEW
could also work in cities like Nashville , Austin , Seattle and Portland .
While Alan has given Michael the reins with Pendry , he holds dearly the continued conceptualization of the ultra-luxury Montage brand , which has five hotels and residences open with an average rate north of US $ 700 . It now includes the newly rebranded Montage Palmetto Bluff in South Carolina . The next Montage is under construction in Cabo San Lucas , Mexico , with an early 2018 opening date , and Alan says two more Montage projects should be announced by year ’ s end with another handful being reviewed , including a project in London he is very excited about .
HOTELS recently spoke with the Fuerstmans to discuss the evolution of the two brands and what it ’ s like to work together as colleagues who happen to be father and son .
HOTELS : What brought Michael into the family hotel business ?
ALAN FUERSTMAN : Mike went to Tufts University . He didn ’ t study hotels and wasn ’ t sure that ’ s what he wanted to do . After college , Michael was working on an Internet startup , just moved back to California and had some time on his hands . I suggested he intern at The Athens Group ( a Montage developer ), which was developing our hotel in Beverly Hills . MICHAEL FUERSTMAN : I sat in some owner ’ s meetings and had no idea about development as I only saw my dad as a hotel general manager … I saw people sitting around a table with a set of plans talking about developing the Montage Beverly Hills and making these really amazing decisions off a set of plans around a table and thought , ‘ What is this ?’ I banged down the door of the guy that was running the
“ WE CONTINUE TO SEE MORE MULTI- GENERATIONAL TRAVEL . SO WE ’ VE ADAPTED , AND AS WE REDESIGN AND ADJUST SUITES INSTEAD OF JUST TWO-BEDROOM SUITES IN MANY OF OUR PROPERTIES WE HAVE GROWN TO THREE- OR FOUR-BEDROOM SUITES .”
project and said , “ Can I please be a part of this somehow ?” AF : When the Beverly Hills hotel was opening , it was the end of 2008 and it was the worst time imaginable . We had these incredible ultra-luxury condos to sell , so I suggested Michael get his real estate license , which he did and took the lead selling the condos … After a few years of that the natural segue was to go to work
– ALAN FUERSTMAN
for Jason Herthel , who at the time was heading up acquisitions development and overall strategy . Jason is now the president of our company , and Mike went to work for Jason on his development team . That evolved ( Michael still reports to Jason ) as we were looking at creating a second brand and Michael actually took the lead on the creation of Pendry from a vision and leadership role .
40 hotelsmag . com November 2016