Hotel News Now: Unique partnerships continue to propel Loews’ growth

Alex Tisch, VP at Loews Corporation and EVP and chief commercial and business development officer for Loews Hotels, said his company has a solid path to growth built around “immersive destinations” and convention center properties aimed at group business.

NEW YORK—Loews Hotels doesn’t have the all-encompassing scale of some of its competitors in the hotel industry, but the company has been able to execute deals and create properties that no other hotel company has.

“We’re never going to have the distribution of a Marriott, a Hilton or a Hyatt, and that’s fine,” said Alex Tisch, VP at Loews Corporation and EVP and chief commercial and business development officer for Loews Hotels. “But what we’re going to be able to do is … disintermediate the distribution disadvantage we have.”

Tisch said the company excels at unique projects due to its role as an owner and operator, and its different approach to investment.

“We don’t really look at projects like a normal developer with a short-term investment horizon,” he said. “We have a longer-term investment horizon, and that makes us a really appealing partner to cities and municipalities and like-minded capital sources.”

Because of this, the company has a successful history of building projects attached to convention centers, such as the 800-room Loews Kansas City Hotel slated to open in 2020 with 60,000 square feet of meeting space.

But it’s not just a matter of partnering with governmental bodies. The company forged unique partnerships with The Texas Rangers for Live! By Loews – Arlington, Texas, set to open this August, and with the St. Louis Cardinals for the Live! By Loews – St. Louis, Missouri, set to open in 2020 as part of a $260 million expansion of Busch Stadium’s Ballpark Village.

That partnership is part of the company’s focus on “immersive destinations” built around unique demand generators, which include its growing complex of properties with Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida.