WEBVTT - André Balazs 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:08.200 Hey, everybody, thanks for pulling up a cheer on Table 0:00:08.280 --> 0:00:11.559 for two. This is Bruce and we are in Hollywood. However, 0:00:11.600 --> 0:00:13.720 we're not at the Tower. We're a block down from 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:17.759 the tower. Tonight, we're having dinner in someone's home. One 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:18.759 could say that. 0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:21.720 I think the casion calls for vesper. Thank you. 0:00:22.400 --> 0:00:23.720 Oh I like this. 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:27.800 A man who created one of the most beautiful, mysterious 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:31.920 hotels in Los Angeles called the Chateau. Oh my god, 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:37.440 look at this, cheers salt. It's not our date night, 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:45.760 we're just having just a warm This would be mister 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:49.920 Andrea Balaz. He's responsible for such hotels as the Mercer 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:54.720 in New York, Chiltern Firehouse in London, a multitude of experiences, 0:00:54.840 --> 0:01:01.400 his attention to details unrivaled, his elegance unmatched. So sit back, enjoy, 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:02.280 because we're going. 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:03.400 To go deep with Andre. 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:16.800 I'm Rus Bassi and this is my podcast Table for two. Okay, 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:19.679 this is so exciting to me. Everybody, if you've pulled 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:25.200 up a chair tonight, this is very really special, my friend, 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:28.280 because we are in Hollywood, at the most glamorous place 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:30.520 undeniably in Hollywood. 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:30.880 That you have created. 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:35.000 It is not where we often find ourselves and we're 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:42.560 sitting with the empresario, the king, the master of experience 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:45.840 and hotels and so much more. So we're going to 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:49.800 talk about that, mister Andrea blaz Welcome. So this was 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:52.720 the chateau moment was your first property. 0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:56.680 But you it's strange in one year, you know, I 0:01:56.760 --> 0:01:59.400 was in the biotech business before. I having sort of 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:04.160 a serial entrepreneurs I started started newspapers, not school papers, 0:02:04.200 --> 0:02:08.880 but newspapers in college with some partners, and I started 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:11.720 other businesses. Then I started biotech business. I did that 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:13.880 for a while. I didn't like the way my life 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:20.080 was bifurcated between my personal life and work life. So 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:24.840 after the company public, you know, I thought, you know, 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:30.200 what would be an interesting thing where basically I couldn't 0:02:30.200 --> 0:02:32.920 distinguish the difference between work and play. 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:35.360 This being a perfect example of it. 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:40.000 Wow, right, we're here where friends, we've been friends for 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:43.320 a long time. We happen to be doing a podcast. 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:46.359 Is sort of a business of yours. We're talking sort 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:50.640 of about a business mind. But I couldn't tell you, 0:02:50.639 --> 0:02:52.240 you know, if this if we were paying for this 0:02:52.360 --> 0:02:55.520 meal and and someone said, did you just have a 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:57.720 business meeting or did you have a personal meeting. I 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:00.640 wouldn't be able to say what it was. Yeah, And 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:04.680 that was the goal, just blend everything. So that's how 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:08.120 I got into it. And in nineteen ninety just happened 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:11.040 to be a year that I bought the building that 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:16.280 then became the Mercer, and I was here staying as 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:19.799 we started a nightclub called BC down Road that we 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:23.520 never got licensed because it got so much advanced hype that. 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:28.040 The city said no, Yeah, but I tried to salvage it. 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:30.160 Right. So I was here, I was staying of the Chateau, 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:35.960 and I realized there's something about this place. So I 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:39.320 ended up buying this building the same year as I 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:41.640 bought the building in nineteen ninety. Yeah. 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:47.760 So I like how you started that by saying creating 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:51.840 the letting go of the bifurcation that we all are 0:03:51.920 --> 0:03:54.160 basically trained to think that you have to live your 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:58.120 life up work, home, workplay or separate as opposed to 0:03:58.280 --> 0:03:59.160 bringing them together. 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:02.119 And it's been a mission in my life to sort 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:08.240 of obliterate that line. Yeah, so that everything is play 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:11.480 or everything is work, but the whole idea of work 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:13.920 is that it should be something you like doing so 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:17.159 much that's not considered work. 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:21.040 Right, and the irony of what you're talking about is undeniably. 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:24.000 This business, I think is one of the hardest businesses 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:25.160 to work at. 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:30.480 What you would know, Yes, I spent years and difficult many. 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:33.320 And on a multitude of levels, so to be able 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:36.040 to sort of kind of understand how to bring those 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:36.560 two together. 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:39.720 You know what you do, so the chateau. So if 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:41.799 we kind of just take that beat in your life. 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:43.920 So for those of you who are who have pulled 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:46.880 up a sure today, the mercy of New York which 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:51.560 and the chateau they you know, having that vision I 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:55.520 think is really fascinating that you saw the beauty of that, 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:58.800 You saw the beauty of the sort of the symmetry 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:02.760 of to central downtown Soho, New York, which was a 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:04.359 sexy it. 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:08.280 And when I look when I recently came, I've been 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:12.440 looking through a building an upstate New York, a place 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:17.120 up there, and we've been collecting, just working on a 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:19.320 book sort of called the Ship We've Done. 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:22.719 This working title, right, is a great title, The Ship 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:23.159 We've done. 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:24.120 The Ship We've done it. 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:27.200 Now, this is a very collaborative business and there's always 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:33.320 a week, there's no eye. And I came across this, 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:36.360 this box that was sort of a mailer to introduce 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:38.919 the mercer, and I realized, you know, it's hard to 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:43.120 imagine today when every city in the world has a Soho, 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:47.039 but back then I had to it was it was 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:51.039 an old fashioned hotel bell and I had to go 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:54.119 to Nasau and get a satellite picture because I wanted. 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:57.440 No one knew where Soho was, so the. 0:05:57.440 --> 0:06:00.320 Idea was this mailer was that it would see to 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:02.120 pick the little button at the top of the the 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:05.800 bell popped through Soho because no one knew where Soba 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:10.640 was in Manhattan when I bought that building, which was 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:15.360 the Astor family's headquarters, which is why it had sort 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:18.039 of more elegance to it than all its neighbors. 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:21.240 They were in a fur trapping business. 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:25.400 A mercer is someone who cleans furs, hence the name 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:25.880 or whatever. 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:27.120 And we. 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:31.360 But the biggest concern was that no one knew where 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:33.480 it was, and if they didn't know where it was, 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:37.360 whether it was sleep there because it was. There were 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:42.240 two restaurants, Raoul's being one of these, stood there. Another 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:45.000 one was a place called Food That's not there. I remember, 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:49.640 and there was there was forget retail, there was nothing. 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:54.320 There was art galleries and literally I lived on the 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:58.919 top floor of this loft buildings or walk up because 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:03.200 the four floors blow me was occupied by a rag business. 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:06.719 They collected rags and sent them out to JFK to 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:10.960 clean airplane parts. I kid you not, that's what that's 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:13.520 the soho that the mercer was born into. 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:18.720 It's it couldn't imagine what it is transformation. 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:34.240 In essence, by acquiring that real estate, bringing your vision, 0:07:35.960 --> 0:07:37.680 you changed the whole. 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:38.960 The neighborhood, neighborhood. 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:42.520 How does that all work together? And why doesn't it. 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:45.400 Scare you or why you know just say, wait a minute, 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:47.640 I'm going to do this, but like there's no one 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:48.160 down here. 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:53.239 Well, the good thing is I started everything young enough. 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:56.360 When you know things are being scared, don't don't occur 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:56.720 to you. 0:07:57.440 --> 0:07:58.440 You just kind of do it. 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:03.280 So this a lot to be said for not need today. 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:08.320 You can call it ballsy later on, but that's retrospective 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:11.320 and there's no option right exactly. 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:13.320 And you buy a building. 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:15.600 In a shitty neighborhood because that's what you can afford 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:19.240 to buy. So the fact that it then becomes the 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:21.160 most expensive neighborhood in Manhattan. 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:21.560 Is not. 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:26.880 It's a result of this, but it certainly it's like 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:29.520 the standard that we built over the high Line. 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:30.840 The only reason I was. 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:34.680 Able to build that, and that's the unfortunately, the only 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:38.319 hotel that I had the good fortune. 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:39.880 To be able to build from ground up. 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:43.360 Everything else has been a conversion of some other building, 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:47.520 like a warehouse, like the Mercer. But that building we're 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:50.760 able to do because nobody wanted the real estate. You know, 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:55.320 at that time, everybody was demanding that the high Line 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:58.640 be torn down. I just happened to know a bunch 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:02.120 of artists and you know, the urban planners and people 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:05.520 who are concerned about the city, and I loved the 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:09.400 Highline just as a thing, as a remnant of its history. 0:09:10.480 --> 0:09:12.760 So I joined this group called Friends of the high Line, 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:16.959 and through that suddenly realized there was this site that 0:09:17.080 --> 0:09:22.520 nobody wanted because it was bifurcated by a train track 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:27.839 thirty feet above ground. CSX, which is now owned by 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:31.200 what now gave the tracks to the city, but at 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:35.160 that time, when Bloomberg was mayor, CSX still owned it. 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:38.600 But it's such a huge conglomerate that you couldn't talk 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:41.560 to anyone, and they didn't give a damn about what 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:42.280 they're trying things. 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:45.520 They want to rip it down. 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:48.640 The city didn't own it yet, they hadn't been gifted 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:49.800 it by CSX. 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:52.040 It wasn't a park, it wasn't This wasn't that. 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:53.800 We had to build a hotel, so I had to 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:57.320 figure out how to build around it. So you end 0:09:57.440 --> 0:10:01.120 up with these weird things. It's not in retrocirc It's 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:03.160 not like you have a vision. You just make the 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:08.640 best of what you have. Like if the mercer changed soho, Well, 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:10.959 the reason I was able to get something sobo was 0:10:11.000 --> 0:10:12.439 that nobody else wanted to be there. 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:12.760 Yeah. 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:17.120 If now you know one of the most expensive neighborhoods 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:22.000 on the West Side, largely you know, Barry and Dan 0:10:22.160 --> 0:10:25.800 built that spectacular pier and all of that stuff. But 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:30.599 that came years afterwards, right the Whitney moved down there afterwards. 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:33.480 The whole neighborhood changed after the Standard as well. But 0:10:33.520 --> 0:10:36.640 we built the Standard there because it was the one 0:10:36.720 --> 0:10:39.360 place I could do it. Because it was inexpensive, nobody 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:41.160 wanted it, nobody knew what to do. 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:42.320 And you know what you did. Well. 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:45.439 That's it's sort of a great business model plan when 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:47.200 you're but you also have to have the eye you 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:48.320 have and the I for detail. 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:50.600 Now, when you know, I've stayed in a number. 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:53.360 Of your hotels over the years as a complete guest 0:10:53.440 --> 0:10:56.480 and a lover of the hotels, sometimes not even realizing 0:10:56.679 --> 0:10:59.120 they were your hotels, just because they were great, you know, 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:01.520 And I'd be like with Anty Cohen, he'd be like, 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:03.000 you know, Andreas is a ton I'm just. 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:04.040 Like, Oh. 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:06.600 One of the things that you do, which I so 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:09.880 appreciate because I have such a big pet peeve, especially 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:13.480 in my beloved city of New York, is the design. 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:15.840 So when you talk about the standard, the design of 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:19.960 that hotel does not go against the neighborhood. 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:22.000 What was authentic to that neighborhood. 0:11:22.000 --> 0:11:24.840 And so many buildings I see now going up in 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:27.439 New York City are just to me horrific. 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:29.000 What made you design it that way? 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:30.960 And it's very sexy and a lot of people do 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:32.320 have sex against those windows. 0:11:34.559 --> 0:11:35.960 It's such a funny story about that. 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:40.840 Again, it because it's the only hotel that I've been 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:43.959 able to for circumstances, I've been able to do it 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:49.280 was it's crafted literally from the inside out, the way 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:54.520 all proper buildings should be. And because it's purpose built, 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:57.080 it's not a developer who wants to build something and 0:11:57.080 --> 0:11:58.840 then they're going to sell it off to someone else. 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:04.600 Look at the worlds, let's use the modernist vocabulary. Right 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:07.559 in New York City, buildings like the Seagrums building or 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:12.720 a lever House or Rockefeller Center stand out as well. 0:12:12.800 --> 0:12:16.240 It was amazing, but they were all built for the owner. 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:24.440 Lebronfons built Seagrums right, lever House was built for it. 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:28.720 The standard was built specifically to use the architecture and 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:32.600 everything to what then was it was the third sort 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:36.119 of fourth standard we've done. It took one in Hollywood, 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:39.360 one downtown LA one in Miami, and then that was 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:46.040 the fourth one and by harnessing the architecture. But I 0:12:46.120 --> 0:12:49.120 remember for so long the idea. Of course it was 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:52.319 a budget hotel. That was the idea. So the idea 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:54.240 was how do you make the rooms as small as 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:58.800 possible but feel as big. But one way to do 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:02.200 that is to have Florida ceiling glass. And the other 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:05.320 thing is if you have Florida ceiling glass is you 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:07.439 can't make it reflective or it's going to look like 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:14.080 every other blue or gray or green tinted office building exactly. 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:19.200 So you had so it's very expensive lead free glass 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:22.240 that is perfectly clear. And the idea was that you 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:24.880 walk into the room and you almost can't see, like 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:25.720 falling out. 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:28.800 That was the idea. Then the other thing is we 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:31.080 I flipped the rooms on side. 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:33.320 On some of the rooms, instead of a shoe box 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:37.120 like thing, it became horizontal. So instead of thirty five 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:40.640 thirty six feet from the door to the window, it 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:44.040 became sixteen feet, which made you open the door and 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:46.800 you're like, whoa, I've just fallen into the city of 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:47.280 New York. 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:48.160 Yeah. 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:53.160 I mean, And that's the kind of playfulness that one 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:55.800 can do if you're building something from scratch. 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:17.360 Welcome back to Table for two. 0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:22.720 The hotels of our guest, Andre Blas are beautiful and 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:23.200 one of. 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:24.080 The kind spaces. 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:28.120 One incredible example of this is the rooftop bar at 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:31.920 the Standard in New York City. What's Andrea's secret? How 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:35.960 does he bring experiences like this together where there is 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:38.520 like does the design in Andrea's head go all the 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:40.800 way up to say, okay, this is sort of like 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:43.600 the cherry on the top of this is going to be. 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:47.400 Well, every space has a narrative in my mind. I 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:50.280 always try to approach it with some story. But that 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:53.760 one was such a slam dunk in a way because 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:57.480 there are two places in New York that were, you know, 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:02.360 elegant cocktail lounges on top of the building, the rainbow 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:04.480 rooms and Windows in the World. 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:05.680 Well Windows on. 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:10.240 The World was no longer and Rainbow room is hardly 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:11.160 a cool place. 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:14.600 So what do you do? You need a new. 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:19.040 Rainbow room for a different generation in different plays. And 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:24.200 the advantage which we also took advances here in downtown 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:27.160 LA with the standard, is that you don't want to 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:29.400 be the tallest building because then all you're looking at 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:30.800 is the air conditioning and the. 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:32.320 Top of any buildings. 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:34.600 You don't want to be the lowest building, but you 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:36.760 want to be right in between so that when you're 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:39.400 looking out a window, as you can in the Boom 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:42.240 Boom Room, you can look up and you can look 0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:46.240 down exactly. And the way the buildings bent because I 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:49.400 knew who could be a wood build to the north, 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:54.320 we bent the building to preserve the views onto the 0:15:54.360 --> 0:16:00.000 Empire State Building. When one can do this, people really 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:04.160 to it, and then it becomes the physical platform for 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:08.240 that what then has to become a social platform. 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:11.640 But it's a little bit like a play. 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:14.480 I suppose you know, you need to create the set, 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:19.880 but a fantastic set doesn't mean that the plays create 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:21.080 at all. 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:23.600 Completely right, Well, I mean one of the things that 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:25.760 I think you also do very artfully. 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:27.800 And you're right, it's like a play or it's like 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:28.800 a movie, you know what I mean. 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:31.040 You walk in and you feel like you're kind of 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:33.000 going into a different place in time. 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:38.080 Everything I tried to my best in my ability, with 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:41.920 the help of a lot of good people. I think 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:44.840 a good hotel should be like a living room for 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:52.720 everybody's It should by definition be democratic and open to everybody. 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:53.880 If there's anything that. 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:59.520 Qualifying things that the more interesting you are, the more 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:04.560 you're well, nobody's not welcome, because if that were the case, 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:08.800 I don't think this kind of hotel would work. Well. 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:13.240 I mean, it's interesting because whatever you changed and when, 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:15.280 and I'm sure there were many things that you changed 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:17.520 from my hotel that was opened in nineteen twenty seven 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:18.560 when you acquired. 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:21.359 It in nineteen ninety ninety, specific. 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:23.960 The authenticity around it continues. So if you go into 0:17:24.000 --> 0:17:25.919 like the rooms, like it's so like the rooms here 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:28.360 are so fascinating because this is where people live here. 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:30.359 You know, they choose to live here, they choose to 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:32.640 have secondary residences here. 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:34.520 I mean they have you know. 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:36.440 You know a few of them right now, but we 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:38.040 don't mention names. 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:43.040 So but no, that's right, and it's and you know, 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:45.880 it's so cool because when you go back into your spaces, 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:47.080 you mean, you're going. 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:47.480 Back in time. 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:51.720 You know, there's things, there's telephones, there's there's couches, there's 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:54.200 soul where there's things that are like, oh. 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:56.560 I'm in a different decade, you know what I mean, 0:17:56.600 --> 0:17:57.440 I'm in a different time. 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:09.200 It's really groovy. 0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:12.560 If you don't know, and you're listening, Andrea has been, 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:14.920 you've been in this business now. 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:16.120 Of length thirty four years. 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:18.879 What's the first thing that when you walk into a 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:21.919 hotel that you look at to should say? Because I 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:24.159 know what it is what I look at that you 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:25.879 look at and say, oh, okay. 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:30.480 I don't look I feel the first thing I want 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:34.600 to feel. And I would never pretend to try to 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:38.640 do something that I'm not that isn't within my. 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:41.720 Sphere. Like if you asked me to. 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:44.480 Produce a television show, I can guarantee you it'll be 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:52.040 a flow. It's my taste is too particular. But if 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:54.960 I act on what I know, I know that there's 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:59.720 enough people that it'll be successful. We've never had a 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:07.440 feel because I've never tried to overreach, so meaning that 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:11.080 I believe that once you stay true to what you 0:19:11.200 --> 0:19:16.560 know yourself, what you believe, what you believe, the experience 0:19:16.600 --> 0:19:21.480 should be. To me, a place that I feel comfortable 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:25.200 is number one. Place that first makes me feel safe 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:30.359 in every term of the word. It's embracing. I know 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:35.720 that my privacy is not going to be violated. Whatever 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:36.360 I do. 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:41.000 Is not going to be somehow invaded on. 0:19:43.000 --> 0:19:47.639 And when I feel safe, then I become less inhibitive. 0:19:48.359 --> 0:19:49.360 And if you. 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:53.679 Think about what one of the greatest joys one can 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:57.919 have in life is to feel uninhibitive. So what can 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:00.520 a good hotel provide One It makes you feel safe, 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:05.439 that triggers your lack of inhibitions, and that allows you 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:10.960 to then experience things that you wouldn't necessarily experience. The 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:15.359 old adage which kilt in their holiday and Institute. After 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:18.920 the Second World War, when the American hotel industry took over, 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:22.440 it was, you know, the world was a dangerous place. 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:25.560 That's the way people saw it, and things like home 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:30.760 away from Home, which was one hotel chains slowly, you know, 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:34.760 if you think about it, at least the people that 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:37.680 I'm interested in hanging out with, the last thing they 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:41.440 want to do is leave home, travel someplace else, and feel. 0:20:41.160 --> 0:20:42.840 Like they're going at home exactly. 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:45.800 So the whole point is to get away from home 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:46.800 to be home. 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:52.639 But to that feeling, strangely, you first have to feel 0:20:53.040 --> 0:20:56.600 even safer than natrone or as safe as at home. 0:20:57.359 --> 0:20:59.960 Then you let your guard down. Then you can experience 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:03.320 something else, and then you made do things that you 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:10.840 wouldn't even do it. A romance is great, business partnerships 0:21:11.000 --> 0:21:11.720 and whatever. 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:11.920 It may be. 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:15.560 Yeah, in one of your hotels, before I got into 0:21:15.640 --> 0:21:18.720 the room, I had taken off all my crothes in 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:22.680 the hallway to be. 0:21:22.720 --> 0:21:23.920 With the person I was going to be with. 0:21:24.080 --> 0:21:25.200 So you clearly felt at home. 0:21:25.240 --> 0:21:38.480 I felt right outside the doors. How does one sort 0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:42.080 of manage this whole sort of idea that, okay, this 0:21:42.080 --> 0:21:44.879 sort of empire to use lack of a better word, 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:48.879 and you're in a constant state of acquisitions, new builds, 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:54.119 new ideas, conversions, renovations like how does that in Andrea 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:54.920 Blasa's head? 0:21:54.960 --> 0:21:57.639 How do you when you wake up? How are you 0:21:57.760 --> 0:21:58.480 navigating this? 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:01.879 And also maintaining a sense of such serenity and peace 0:22:02.320 --> 0:22:03.960 as what I'm feeling as I'm saying. 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:06.000 Next to you, and every time I'm like you, I 0:22:06.040 --> 0:22:06.440 don't know. 0:22:08.440 --> 0:22:11.320 I mean, what is the most challenging piece of in 0:22:11.359 --> 0:22:12.840 the dynamic of what you do? 0:22:13.400 --> 0:22:20.399 Look, navigating COVID was really difficult, definitely fueled by my 0:22:21.560 --> 0:22:27.200 understanding of the severity, the medical the reality of pandemics 0:22:27.280 --> 0:22:28.600 throughout history and. 0:22:28.640 --> 0:22:33.240 What this was about. I think I lost my bearing. 0:22:32.960 --> 0:22:37.080 A little bit in that I became overly concerned about 0:22:37.080 --> 0:22:45.440 it and I completely underestimated societies, our societies, but most societies. 0:22:45.000 --> 0:22:49.600 Willingness to completely ignore it. That's probably been the most. 0:22:49.359 --> 0:22:52.680 Difficult thing I've had to navigate in this business, other 0:22:52.760 --> 0:22:55.120 than trying to build a nursery in New. 0:22:55.080 --> 0:23:01.119 York physically literally literally all So, what is your joy? 0:23:01.160 --> 0:23:01.800