Young blood: Alex Tisch carries the family name forward at Loews Hotels

Success at Loews Hotels has been spellbinding. In the spring of 1996, the hotel company partnered with Universal Studios to build hotels as part of a $2.6-billion expansion of Universal Studios Florida. Three years later, Loews Portofino Bay in Orlando opened, the first in a run of Loews-developed properties in collaboration with Universal.

Then, things got Harry. In 2007, Universal Studios announced a deal to create The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, having bested The Walt Disney Company to secure exclusive theme park rights through a partnership with Warner Bros. and J.K. Rowling, the author of the wildly popular book series, which has sold more than 600 million copies—and counting—worldwide. The attraction, which opened in 2010 and now spans three Universal theme parks, was an immediate hit: park attendance jumped 36%.

Muggles, it turns out, need a place to stay. Loews Hotels now has 11 hotels and 11,000 guestrooms as part of its Universal collab, having opened three since January 2025, its most recent Universal Helios Grand Hotel, a Loews Hotel. The serendipity of Harry Potter alighting from its broomstick in Universal Orlando is not lost on Loews— especially on Alex Tisch, the president & CEO of Loews Hotels & Co, who succeeded his cousin and longtime chief of Loews Hotels, Jonathan Tisch, in 2023. “It’s funny, Jon would say, ‘When I go to bed at night, I’m thankful for three things: my kids, my wife and Harry Potter.’”

He didn’t specify in which order.

WHAT’S IN A NAME

The Tisch name draws a lot of water—especially in New York, where Jonathan Tisch’s side of the family is a part owner in the New York Giants. It also owns one of the preeminent hotels in the city, Loews Regency New York, under Loews Hotels & Co, which is a subsidiary of Loews Corporation, a conglomerate run by the Tisch family.

Like the hotel and football team, Loews Corporation is a New York story. Its roots trace back to the mid-1940s. That’s when brothers Laurence and Robert Tisch, backed by the largesse of their parents, acquired a hotel in New Jersey and, from there, expanded the business. By 1956, they had their capstone: the Americana hotel in Bal Harbour, Fla., designed by renowned architect Morris Lapidus.

Loews Corporation started with hotels but became a highly diversified company thereafter—look no further than its name. In 1959, the Tisch brothers purchased a controlling interest in movie chain Loew’s Theatres, adopting the name as its investment vehicle moving forward. It grew from there, acquiring interests in everything from watches to insurance. One can even make the argument that Laurence Tisch was responsible for the infamous “Late Night Wars,” when, after he acquired a large stake of CBS through Loews and was made chairman, he approved the deal that brought late-night host David Letterman to the network from NBC in 1993.

The passage of time for Loews Hotels has been entrusted to two men: Robert (née Preston Robert Tisch, but better known as Bob) and his son, Jonathan Tisch, who became CEO of the hotel group in 1989. Like his father before him, Jonathan Tisch is a passionate promoter of travel and a heavyweight champion of New York. He serves as chairman emeritus of the U.S. Travel Association and, in a move that could only be made in Manhattan, had a cameo—at his hotel—in the Showtime series “Billions.”

Tisch judiciously steered the company through a gauntlet: 9/11, global financial crises, pandemic—and a host of other quotidian slings against the hospitality industry. In 2022, he transitioned to the role of executive chairman, leaving a vacancy at the top. Loews did not go outside the family to fill it.

YOUNG BLOOD

Alex Tisch isn’t old, which is to say he is younger than his predecessor. A thick, black mane atop a low hairline is proof. In fact, one wouldn’t be faulted to assume that Jonathan Tisch is Alex Tisch’s uncle, but it’s incorrect. Jonathan Tisch, as a matter of fact, is Alex Tisch’s cousin (Alex’s father is his first cousin). Never mind the family tree, Alex views the relationship on more of an avuncular level, referring to Jonathan as both mentor and dear friend. The elder Tisch’s confidence in Alex has nothing to do with familial favor; rather, it has everything to do with his performance across various aspects of the business, from acquisitions and development to commercial disciplines. (He joined Loews Corp. in 2010 and has spent the last eight years with Loews Hotels & Co.)

Alex Tisch assumed the president and CEO position on the first day of 2023. The new year did not bring new change. Consider its business model: Loews Hotels is an owner and operator, which is to say it’s avoided the siren song of asset light, a model that derives fees by lending name and network through a franchise approach. From Marriott and Hilton to IHG and Wyndham, it’s all the rage. Not that Loews, which manages and holds equity positions in all 27 of its hotels, never thought about it, Tisch said. In the 2010s, it considered a pivot to an asset-light model to potentially quicken the pace of growth since, as Tisch pointed out, distribution in major markets is important and acts as a multiplier of every other hotel in the network. Loews elected not to.

GOING LIVE

It proved a sagacious decision. The decade ending 2020 was a fruitful time for Loews, with a string of projects that personify its brand promise and illustrate the ingenuity of partnership. Live! by Loews is a premium, sports-resort hotel brand developed through a partnership between Loews Hotels & Co, The Cordish Companies and local sports entities. Projects of this scope are intense, but result in destination anchors for decades to come. In 2019, Live! by Loews – Arlington, Texas opened, a 300-room hotel with multiple F&B outlets, 35,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor event space, an outdoor infinity pool and, what makes it unique, direct access to Texas Live!, a district that constitutes Globe Life Park, home of the Texas Rangers, and AT&T Stadium, home field for the Dallas Cowboys. Five years later, Loews opened the 888-room, $550-million Loews Arlington Hotel—a skybridge connects it to the Live! by Loews—in what Tisch calls one of the great public-private partnerships with the city of Arlington. (Loews Miami Beach, which opened in 1998 and concluded a $55-million renovation last year, is another example of a successful public-private partnership.)

Loews likes Arlington so much that it is dipping in for a third time. Earlier this year, it announced plans for Americana by Loews Hotels – Arlington, Texas, which pays homage to Loews’ first property in Bal Harbour. It is slated to open in 2029.

Live! by Loews – St. Louis, Mo. opened in 2020, located in Ballpark Village across from Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals.

To hear it from Tisch, Live! by Loews – Arlington, and another project that opened around the same time, the 800-room Loews Kansas City, which connects directly to the convention center, ended as strokes of genius, but started as strokes of luck. “We stumbled upon them. Literally, like walking down the street and tripping and falling into these two great projects,” Tisch recalled.

These massive undertakings also proved a point, as Tisch framed it, that there is an inherent benefit of fully controlling an asset. “I saw a really unique value proposition to grow this business into something really big,” he said. “We took a step back and said, ‘Okay, because the whole world is going asset light doesn’t mean we have to.’ You have a distinct competitive advantage in being an owner and operator.”

It was around this time that Tisch became more entrenched in the Loews Hotels business. Jonathan Tisch asked him to run the commercial and development aspects of the business, something that he didn’t have experience in, but credits the people around him for helping him succeed.

SAME NEW PATH

Though impossible to discount the lineal ties of succession at Loews Hotels, when asked what his biggest difference is as a leader compared to Jonathan Tisch, Alex Tisch prefers to answer in a manner that makes clear how both their styles run complementary. “We both understand that the business doesn’t run without great people and great assets,” he said.

What he does have is a keen focus on the bottom line and creating value for shareholders. Hoteliers rely on an array of KPIs to judge performance. Tisch values business performance through one particular metric: adjusted EBITDA, or the proportion of earnings attributable to Loews Hotels from a joint venture, subsidiary or investment, rather than 100% of the entity’s earnings. Adjusted EBITDA at Loews Hotels & Co was $124 million in the first quarter of 2026, versus $81 million at the same time a year ago.

As Loews has matured, its projects have become more involved, with a bigger scope. They fill a gap in an industry where shrinking products and conversions have become popular. Loews is a counterpuncher. Its properties are capacious: greater than 300 rooms is the norm, with an excess of 50 square feet of meeting space per room.

“We see significant underinvestment in hotels and a lack of new construction in what Loews Hotels does best,” Tisch said, which is to cater to some of the largest group business in the U.S. “The supply of great meeting hotels is antiquated,” he added.

In that way, Tisch fashions himself an anticipator—like Wayne Gretzky, to pull from sports. “It feels like everyone’s chasing the same puck. I’d rather go where the puck is going,” he said. “We’re developing in a sweet spot right now where no one else is.” According to Lodging Econometrics, there are 32 properties currently under construction with a room count greater than 300 rooms in the U.S.

It’s disingenuous to say that Loews properties are only built to cater to meetings and groups. They are in some of the best U.S. locations. Loews Coronado Bay Resort is on its own private peninsula in San Diego; Loews Hollywood Hotel is in the heart of the cinematic neighborhood, next door to the Dolby Theatre; Loews New Orleans Hotel is downtown and adjacent to the French Quarter; and then there are the 11 hotels at Universal Orlando. The opening of Universal Helios coincided with the opening of Universal Epic Universe, the third theme park at Universal Orlando Resort, which features Super Nintendo World.

Loews also reinvests. Beyond the $55 million it put into Loews Miami Beach, it’s putting upwards of $35 million into Loews Nashville Hotel at Vanderbilt Plaza. Recent renovations have also been made at Loews Ventana Canyon, Loews Chicago, Loews Atlanta, Hard Rock Hotel at Universal Orlando, Loews Royal Pacific and Loews Philadelphia. “We make sure our product is very competitive,” Tisch said.

Hotels must be, especially those among groups that don’t have vast global distribution networks and loyalty programs. Loews understands that; it also appreciates that Loews might not be the first choice of accommodations when someone visits a city. Tisch uses it to his advantage. “The first time you go to Kansas City, you probably won’t stay at the Loews, only because you don’t know about it,” he said. “The second time you go to Kansas City, you will stay at the Loews because you’ll see the product and say, ‘Gee, I should have stayed there.’ That’s the way I envision it.”