The story
Founded by Albert Keller on Aug 1983.1
History
Ritz, Carlton and Ritz-Carlton in Europe
The story of the Ritz-Carlton brand begins with Swiss hotelier César Ritz, who was well known in the hotel industry as the "king of hoteliers and hotelier to kings." He redefined luxury accommodation in Europe with his management of the Ritz in Paris and the Carlton Hotel in London, among others. He and the chef from his hotels, Auguste Escoffier, opened à la carte restaurants known as "Ritz-Carlton" on board the Hamburg-Amerika Line ocean liners SS Amerika in 1905 and SS Imperator in 1913. The restaurants on those ships ceased operating in 1914 with the outbreak of World War I. Although Ritz died in 1918, his wife Marie continued the tradition of opening hotels in his name.
The Ritz-Carlton in North America
The Ritz-Carlton Investing Company was established by Albert Keller, who bought and franchised the name in the United States. The first Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the U.S. opened in New York City in 1911. It was located at 46th Street and Madison Avenue. Louis Diat ran the kitchens and invented Vichyssoise there. In 1911, the Ritz company announced its intention to expand to Philadelphia and Atlantic City. The Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia followed in 1913 at Broad & Walnut streets, designed by Horace Trumbauer and Warren & Wetmore. The Ritz-Carlton Montreal opened in 1912, not owned by Keller as it was located in Canada. Keller's Ritz-Carlton Atlantic City opened in 1921.
The first Ritz-Carlton chain
In the early 1920s, the Ritz-Carlton chain consisted of 15 hotels:
Plaza Hotel Buenos Aires
Imperial Hotel, Menton
Royal Hotel, Évian-les-Bains
Splendide Hotel, Évian-les-Bains
Grand Hotel Excelsior, Rome
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Grand Hotel, Rome (today the St. Regis Rome)
Grand Hotel and New Casino, Rapallo
Grand Hotel et des Iles Borromees, Lake Maggiore
Excelsior Hotel, Naples
Grand Hotel Ritz Dunapalota, Budapest
Grand Hotel National, Lucerne
Carlton Hotel, London
Ritz Hotel, London
Ritz-Carlton Hotel, New York City
Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Atlantic City
The Boston hotel
In October 1926, 29-year-old Edward N. Wyner bought a third-acre parcel at the corner of Arlington and Newbury streets and formed a partnership called the Ritz-Arlington Trust with his father, George, and business associate, John S. Slater.
The trust sold $5.8 million of bonds to finance the construction of an apartment building to be called the Mayflower. The 18-story, 201-foot (61 m) brick building, designed by Strickland, Blodget & Law Architects, was far taller than anything else along Newbury Street at the time. Construction had started on the second floor when Wyner was persuaded by then-Mayor James Michael Curley to make the Mayflower a world-class, 300-room Ritz-Carlton Hotel, which opened May 19, 1927. Room rates were $5 to $15 per night; $40 per night for suites.
After a hugely successful opening, the stock market crash of 1929 and ensuing Depression brought financial difficulties. The Wyner family funded the hotel's operating losses during the early 1930s, although the interest on the bonds went unpaid. Still in 1933, when only 30 guests were registered in the hotel, Wyner turned on the lights in every guest room to give the appearance that the hotel was full.
Decline of the first Ritz-Carlton chain
The Philadelphia location was converted to an office building after only a few years in operation. The Atlantic City hotel was sold to Schine Hotels in the late 1940s, and later to Sheraton Hotels in 1959. The New York hotel was demolished in 1951, leaving only the Boston location. Edward Wyner died of a heart attack on December 5, 1961. His six sons tried to continue the operation of the Boston hotel, but were unable to overcome difficulties, and decided to sell.
The Blakeley years: 1964–1983
The unpaid interest on the bonds dissuaded many from trying to buy the hotel. But Cabot, Cabot & Forbes principal Gerald F. Blakeley Jr. was interested. After more than a year of legal work, Hale and Dorr succeeded at clearing the bond obligations, and in October 1964 Blakeley and associates Paul Hellmuth and Charles Spaulding acquired the Ritz-Carlton Boston for $5.8 million.
"Out of the 20 years I owned it, it made money three years. The other years it broke even, but from a public relations standpoint for CC&F, it was a tremendous asset," said Blakeley, who constructed a 19-story addition to the hotel in 1981, which included more function space, 80 more guest rooms, and 52 condominiums.
In the late 1960s Blakeley obtained the rights to the Ritz-Carlton name in North America (with the exception of Montreal and New York). In June 1978, Blakeley was awarded the rights and privileges of the Ritz-Carlton trademark in the United States and was given a US Service Mark Registration.
In the 1970s, the Ritz-Carlton name was licensed to the builders of a new hotel in Chicago. The Ritz-Carlton Chicago opened in 1975 in a tower atop Water Tower Place. It joined the Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts chain in 1977, as there was no Ritz-Carlton chain at the time. Confusingly, it remained part of Four Seasons for decades, marketed as "the Ritz-Carlton Chicago (A Four Seasons Hotel)". It had no association with the modern Ritz-Carlton chain, though it used the name and the iconic logo. The property was sold in 2013 and left Four Seasons, joining the modern Ritz-Carlton chain as a franchise on August 1, 2015.
In 1982, Blakely licensed the name to hotelier John B. Coleman for two hotels he was renovating, The Fairfax in Washington, D.C., and the Navarro in New York City. Coleman renamed them the Ritz-Carlton Washington, D.C., and the Ritz-Carlton New York in April 1982. Coleman paid Blakely a fee of 1.5 percent of each hotel's annual gross revenue for use of the name. The two hotels eventually joined the modern chain that would be founded a few years later.
The corporate years: 1983–1999
From 1951 to 1975, the Ritz-Carlton Boston had been one of only two Ritz-Carlton hotels in the US. The other was the independently owned Ritz-Carlton Atlantic City which had since been converted to condominiums. Johnson's company paid the Atlantic City establishment to abandon its name and rename itself the Ritz Condominiums.
Johnson would later enlarge the company from just the Boston property to 30 hotels worldwide in just 10 years. He obtained financing to do so from Manufacturers Hanover Trust of New York in 1983 in the amount of $85 million secured by the Ritz-Carlton Boston. This loan was refinanced in 1989 by Manhattan Tops USA of New York for $136.5 million and again in 1994 by the Sumitomo Bank of Japan. By 1996, this mortgage was in default and the interest and penalties brought the total debt to $214.8 million. By splitting this mortgage note into three parts, Sumitomo Bank was able to unbundle the Ritz-Carlton Boston from the trademark rights to the Ritz-Carlton brand worldwide.
In March 1995, Marriott International, which franchised and managed over 325,000 rooms, bought a 49% stake in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. Blackstone Real Estate Acquisitions bought the Ritz-Carlton Boston at auction for $75 million in February 1998. A month later, Marriott International acquired the hotel from Blackstone for $100 million.
In April 1998, Marriott International purchased an additional 50% stake in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company from Johnson for $290 million, giving Marriott 99% ownership of the company and rights to the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain worldwide. Schulze and other executives (including Leonardo Inghilleri, Robert A. Warman and Peter Schoch) left to form the West Paces Hotel Group, which took the name of its primary brand, Capella Hotels, in December 2011. In 2007, the partners also formed Solís Hotels.
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From Wikipedia’s article on The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3