Ian Schrager's Clift Hotel in bankruptcy
They're blaming it on the economy -- the dotcom bust and the reduction in travel -- but I'm not surprised the Clift Hotel has had to go into bankruptcy protection. Originally opened in 1915, Ian Schrager came into the picture recently by turning the SF landmark into a trendy new hotel on the edges of the Tenderloin only a few blocks from Union Square.
Schrager, thinking he could apply his 1970s Studio 54-style snob appeal to the hotel, made guests wait for hours outside the hotel. You had to even be on a guest list to get into to the Redwood Room bar. Of course, this was then -- when it opened -- and this is now -- the bankruptcy. Few San Franciscans forgot that attitude towards them those first few months, and I'm sure that has had something to do with its current financial mess. According to this San Francisco Chronicle story:
"It's a landmark property in a great location, but it's an older building, and it needed significant capital expenditures to reposition it," said Elgonemy, a San Francisco analyst with hotel consultants Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels. Schrager acquired the Clift, which is located at the corner of Geary and Taylor streets, in 1999 for $80 million.
Elgonemy estimates Schrager spent from $20 million to $40 million to upgrade the hotel in 2001, adding 44 rooms, opening the stylish Asia de Cuba restaurant and giving the Redwood Room a contemporary face-lift.