In its April issue, HOTELS presents Change Makers, 10 movers and shakers who are developing their own unique niches and making new headlines in a quickly evolving marketplace. Here’s Ben Weprin of AJ Capital, who is committed to authentic hotelkeeping and the desire to go big.
Ben Weprin is making no small plans, and when he says this you can’t help but believe him. The 37-year-old founder of AJ Capital Partners, Chicago, who many industry thought leaders in the U.S. call a rising star, has a hit on his hands with Graduate, a local, experiential brand for big college towns. Five Graduates are open, another five are coming this year in markets that include Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Berkeley, California, and 10 more are in the pipeline. He’s a substantial investor in Auberge Resorts (his first investment in Q4 ’08) and the general partner/developer in multiple other hotel investments, more recently the iconic Pontchartrain in New Orleans, which he is repositioning for an imminent re-launch. Forever brimming with optimism, Weprin seems to know no end to possibilities and is building his Chicago-based team with a similar outlook.
“I want us, as a company, to be the most transformative hotel developer in the world,” says the father of two with a third on the way. “That’s how I think. I think really big for us, and we have the capabilities, bandwidth and the momentum… I have a monstrous appetite to make change and to do interesting things on a bigger, more global scale.”
Without offering details, he likes other verticals, too, such as the multi-family and retail spaces where principles of hospitality, design and culture can be applied. In fact, he says AJ (Adventurous Journeys) has a good 20 ideas and it is more about which ones to act on first. “We want to push the limits of what people think is possible,” Weprin says. “That’s how you create a legacy and that’s what we’re all here to do–create a real legacy of something that’s around for a long time that people really look at and say, ‘they really took a chance and they really did something special.’”
Weprin wants to create brands that are genuine and far from mass market–even in the so-called lifestyle space. What started as a strategy to acquire or invest in iconic, high barrier to entry, unique assets with high ADRs is being applied across segments–even to hotels that get a US$150 rate.
He cites Pulitzer Prize winning author Martin Dressler for inspiration. “It was about building a city within a city, and how a hotel was really optimized by creating a ‘town square’ with a post office, a shoeshine and more. Everything happened within a hotel. Memories were made. You recognize that history and bring it forward.”
Weprin likes to say Graduate hotels are not made up. “It’s real. We are not trying to fool anybody,” he says of the design and environment. “I go to Philadelphia in Mississippi every single year, and there is a general store called Williams Brothers. It’s 115 or 120 years old and they slice bacon right in front of the cash register. They didn’t design it that way–it just evolved over time. There was no design firm or design boards–it just happened. It’s just organic.”
That is how Weprin wants the “we are all students” Graduate brand to feel. Not trendsetting, but taking inspiration from small towns like Philadelphia, learning the local lore, handcrafting the fittings and infusing it with inviting spaces. “Just like they’re here for a million years and they’re going to be there for a million more. There’s no unveiling of a model room in some auditorium in Las Vegas,” he says.
Weprin cites Airbnb’s catchphrase, live like a local. “Whatever you want to call that for hotels, that’s what we do,” he adds.
When asked about important lessons from his first eight years in the business, Weprin says it’s “not compromising.” He refers to stretching to get a deal done for the perfect location. “You can’t put an ROI on the emotional connection a guest gets to the hotel,” he says. “It’s not tangible; it’s emotional. When people connect with the space, they become customers for life, and that’s invaluable. Then they also become brand ambassadors.”
Weprin says there are not a lot of other careers where you get gratification daily, and that is his motivation. “That’s a big deal for all the people that work here and commit themselves to AJ,” he says. “The investors that support us like the validation, too.”