Boutique Design - April 2018 - 80

BRIAN DE LOWE
PRESIDENT AND COFOUNDER,
PROPER HOSPITALITY

BRAD KORZEN
COFOUNDER, PROPER HOSPITALITY

ALEX SAMEK
There's nothing innately disruptive about the concept of
boutique hotels in 2018, according to the masterminds
behind the three-year-old, California-based Proper Hospitality company: Brian De Lowe, Brad Korzen and Alex Samek.
"Our target guests-affluent members of the 'creative
class'-have developed higher-end tastes and prefer more
refined experiences. They virtually grew up with the last
wave of boutique hotels, and now they are looking for
something a bit higher end and/or more casual and experiential," says president and cofounder De Lowe ( for more
from him on the firm's upcoming DTLA outpost, see
Boutique Design's March 2018 issue).
In other words, these are travelers who look at OG lifestyle brands, yes, even icons like Morgans Hotel Group or
Joie de Vivre Hotels (now part of Two Roads Hospitality) as
been-there, done-that. It helps that all three cofounders
have already mastered the art of transformation at a
personal level-good training for trailblazing a new hospitality landscape that moves beyond the conventional
concepts of either boutique or big box hotels.
Korzen originally studied law before realizing it wasn't
for him and turning to real estate investment. What started
as a family-and-friend backed business with a portfolio of
two- and four-unit apartments in Korzen's native Chicago
became investment/development/management firm The
Kor Group, which has now handled $3 billion in assets and
is an investor in the entire Proper Hospitality portfolio,
currently including San Francisco Proper Hotel and Hollywood Proper Residences, with further outposts in Downtown LA, Santa Monica and Austin to open soon. De Lowe
started with a real estate degree, but soon found himself
learning the ropes at The Kor Group, as well. Samek may
have begun his career in banking/private equity, but he too
was swept up into the rising tide of The Kor Group.
So, just what do these three cofounders think makes a
hotel concept truly outstanding today? First of all, push
past the over-analysis of the target market and settle on
one key consumer base who can become loyal to all of a
brand's products. In Proper's case, that means both hotels
and residential/extended stay hybrids.
Who is the "Proper" fit? A quick look at the hotels'
neighbors answers that question. The traveler wanting to
stay near companies such as Viacom, Fender, NeueHouse
or Netflix in LA; Twitter, Square, Uber or Spotify in San
Francisco; or Google in Austin. All share a need to be near
80

boutiquedesign.com APRIL 2018

SAN FRANCISCO PROPER HOTEL

C O U R T E S Y O F P R O P E R H O S P I TA L I T Y ( D E L O W E , KO R Z E N A N D S A M E K ) ;
N OA H W E B B ( S A N F R A N C I S C O P R O P E R H O T E L )

COFOUNDER, PROPER HOSPITALITY
http://www.boutiquedesign.com
Boutique Design - April 2018

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