Executive Jet Charter

• Interview Series

Marty Collins

Biography: Marty Collins is the founder of Gatehouse Capital and is responsible for the company’s overall strategic direction and capital relations. Prior to founding Gatehouse, Collins was a partner in a Trammell Crow family affiliate, COO of Hampstead Group, and COO of Americana Hotels and other Bass family affiliated investments. He’s been responsible for the creation of several luxury hotels under Starwood Hotels’ W brand, including the Ws in Dallas, Silicon Valley, San Diego and the W Hollywood Hotel and Residences.

He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Akron, and a graduate degree in business and liberal arts from Southern Methodist University.

RYL:     Did you grow up surrounded by luxury and opulence?

Marty Collins: In a word: no. My beginnings were pretty basic. I was born and raised initially in Kentucky and where my family had a tobacco farm. There was nothing very luxurious about it. It was very ‘Huck Finn’ [chuckles] in terms of being outside with lots of land and wildlife. The idea of displaying any sort of wealth in an agrarian society tends to isolate you from your peers. So I wouldn’t say it [my childhood] was luxurious. I wouldn’t say it was poor, but I would say it was a very basic lifestyle.

RYL:     So what drew you to the luxury industry? And what made you stay?

Marty Collins: The agricultural lifestyle just wasn’t for me. After several years of living in the Middle East dealing with the training and contracting side of foreign military sales, I had a kid and figured I would do something different, and so I started in real-estate. So in the 1980s I was buying land and syndicating it to high income professionals, mostly doctors and such. After doing that for a number of years, I worked on a large portfolio called Americana Hotels for the Bass family of Ft. Worth, Texas. Then after being the COO on a new real estate investment fund called Hampstead for several years which invested over a billion in RTC purchases, working with the Trammel Crow family on land investment, doing some advisory for other national companies, I began an association with Barry Sternlicht of Starwood and their W Hotels and served as a third party developer and owner. I developed W Hotels in California such as Silicon Valley, San Diego and then the mixed-use one here in Hollywood. I also did a W mixed use development in Dallas.

Over the years the brand developed from a boutique brand to more of a luxury lifestyle, and then my interest in developments moved from simply doing a hotel to doing more mixed use developments. From there I did the Joule Hotel as a developer in Dallas, and then the Hyatt Regency in Mission Beach. So these associations from both a hotel perspective and from a residential perspective probably led me to the luxury industry more than anything else.

RYL:    How do you now define luxury?

Marty Collins: The quintessential aspects of luxury historically have been that it was a good or service that was relatively scarce, relatively expensive, relatively unique, and often handmade. Quality was a big aspect of it, and it had to really elevate your status among your peers. I think that was a large part of the definition; but as far as the physical attributes, luxury certainly has changed.

RYL:     Do you think that this current economic state has changed your definition of luxury at all?

Marty Collins: Sure. I think luxury changes without regards to economics. I think it changes in production cycles and that economic cycles exaggerate and accelerate those changes.

RYL:     In this economy, how do you think luxury brands provide value to their client’s?

Marty Collins: Well, let’s use private aviation, because we have those co-branding relationships as well, as a lot of our customers are private aviation customers:  ease and convenience are a big part of that proposition, whereas conspicuous consumption is less a part of it because they are only existing within their own peer set. I think the people that have the means and desire to move around at their leisure will continue to spend money flying privately because it’s very liberating and there is a lot of value there.

RYL:     Do you anticipate what your consumers will find valuable?

Marty Collins: Yes, we have to. We started this project here in Hollywood over 10 years ago, and if we only sit and try to mimic what the currents trends or fads are, then we relegate ourselves to obscurity by delivering  something that’s outdated 10 years later. So understanding our customers first of all, and understanding where those trends go and what’s going to be relevant a decade later is what you have to do, and it’s not the easiest thing. So the question becomes: how do you look forward and figure out what they will like? I think you miss it some, but generally you try and look to events or spectacles, as David Rockwell calls them, for clues about where we are going.

RYL:     So it seems you have a gift for anticipating trends. Where do you see the luxury industry going? 2, 5, 10 years from now?

Marty Collins: I am always appalled when I hear things like “luxury is dead”. I think things are never as bad as they seem, and their probably never as good as they seem either by the way. As we look to luxury, I think it’s completely ok that consumer tastes change and that luxury changes along with it. I don’t think luxury should be affordable. I don’t think that’s luxury. I think there are lots of things that should be affordable, but I think the minute that it becomes more affordable, it becomes less luxurious.

RYL:     With your properties how do you ensure exclusivity? How do you ensure that the brands you are associated with elevate ones status?

Marty Collins: To start with, the W brand is not for everybody. It exists in a particular set for a particular lifestyle. It’s a space that we carved out for ourselves by selecting and being a growing part of W. Within a co-branding sense, we needed to align ourselves with the top 2, 3, 4 percent when it comes to clubs [Drai’s Hollywood], spas [Bliss] and restaurants [Delphine].

I think part of having an original and authentic assembly, as opposed to a standard hotel, with standard rooms, is offering more than just a commodity. Because we sell residences, and offer apartments, we maintain the integrity of the brand and preserve its authenticity. I just think imitation is not what luxury is about.

RYL:     Is there an individual that has motivated you, or inspired you in your career life or personal life?

Marty Collins: Stanely Marcus I think is unbelievable. I think he completely understood luxury and its relationship to price and value. I think he completely understood luxury’s relationship to service and as a result created something of great value, and I suspect that no matter how bad the recession gets, Neiman Marcus will always be around. On the non-luxury side, I look at Steven Jobs and I think there is a guy that clearly gets it. He has a good sense of merging technology in design in a very unique way.

Favorites:

Phone: I have a house dominated by both iphone and blackberrys. I am a big fan of Steven Jobs, so I am a big fan of apple.

Favorite Burger Joint: Father’s Office

Favorite Car: Sedan: Mercedes    Sport Car: Maserati Gran Turismo.

Favorite Travel Location: Jackson Hole to Ski, and for the summer, North Shore of Kauai at Hanalei, HI. Nothing ever happens there, so no one should ever go there. I don’t want anyone ruining this place… but there is absolutely nothing to do there, so please don’t go there!