As Irvine-based Montage International celebrates its 20-year mark of operations, the high-end hotelier is in a new phase of expansion, with several hotel openings planned for in and outside of OC over the next several years.
Family remains at the forefront of the brand, with founder and Chief Executive Alan Fuerstman heading an international push for Montage, while the company’s boutique spinoff brand, Pendry, prepares to open its first OC property under the helm of Fuerstman’s son, Michael Fuerstman, the company’s creative director.
Pendry Newport Beach will open in late summer, marking the first property of its kind in the region, and the third in Southern California. The debut will bring with it a new Montage concept: a social club, dubbed The Elwood Club (for more, see story, page 3).
Next year, Montage will open the Montage Cay in the Bahamas, building on the company’s international portfolio that kicked off with the 2018 opening of Montage Los Cabos in Mexico.
The firm has signed 11 new management contracts in the past year with a growing focus on Mexico, and new sights set on the Caribbean.
“Just going to a [new] market is not enough—being in the right location of any particular market is incredibly important,” Alan Fuerstman previously told the Business Journal.
“We’re as much defined by the deals we turn down as by the deals we actually do.”
It’s part of the brand consistency Fuerstman hopes to set up across the portfolio, starting with a focus on Montage’s “own backyard.”
“If we do a great job with that, our reputation will spread and become well known regionally, nationally, and ultimately internationally,” he said.
Montage will continue to focus on its first Orange County property, Montage Laguna Beach, which wrapped an extensive resort-wide renovation in 2019, and sold at the end of last year for $641 million, or nearly $2.5 million per key, setting a local and state record.
“Investment will continue to keep the hotel at the top of the luxury hotel market,” Alan Fuerstman said.
Last year was also a record one for the brand’s residential business.
The company recorded $1.1 billion in sales volume last year, up 38% from 2021. That’s ahead of the OC market, which saw luxury sales volume slip last year from the year prior, according to Business Journal research.
