Starwood and B.R. Guest Form Partnership to Build Restaurant Company
New Venture to Build Exclusive Portfolio of High-End Restaurant Brands
APRIL 10, 2007. Starwood Capital Group and B.R. Guest Inc. announced today they have completed the formation of a new partnership, B.R. Guest LLC. The new venture will seek to build a global portfolio of the most exclusive names in the restaurant business through both acquisitions and organic growth of its existing brands.
Both Starwood Capital, which is led by Barry Sternlicht, and B.R. Guest founder Stephen Hanson will be equal partners in the new venture. The new company currently operates 16 restaurants located in New York, Chicago and Las Vegas, including such well-known names Fiamma Osteria, Blue Water Grill, Fiamma Trattoria and Primehouse.
"We are excited to be partnering with Steve Hanson on behalf of our investors in our funds. Steve and I collaborated on the wildly successful Blue Fin restaurant at the W Times Square and I have become a huge fan. Steve combines brilliant business acumen in his industry with fresh concepts and ideas and has built one of the great multi-unit restaurant enterprises in the country. We will combine Starwood Capital's in brand building capability with our growing global real estate footprint to add value and differentiation through the B.R. Guest platform to many of our product offerings," Mr. Sternlicht said.
"Barry is clearly one of the industry's leading visionaries and I'm proud to be partnering with him and Starwood Capital to build a premier collection of high-end, worldwide dining establishments," Hanson said. "We are determined to ensure that the creative force behind each of our establishments remains with their chefs where it belongs, while B.R. Guest LLC provides the infrastructure and operational expertise needed to support each operation."
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