#The lightstone club

[caw4brandon]

- We have NO self-control -

The Hoodlite Dilemma

I'm back on my chaotic rambling again and it's getting worse! So, I doodled. As you do, with no clear idea as to how I'm going to fix my current issues with my world. Then this lightbulb moment happened!

I wanted to redo how I think about the Hoodlites and just go for it. Make them human but not exactly. Give them normal bodies but completely change their heads and this was the result.

A blank expression cup head with one of the STAB elements on top. It's a silly idea and I love how dumb it looks when I set it next to everyone. The expressions will be different from other variations.

This is to make up for deleting the Owen post and I thought this was a funnier attempt. Make him as goofy as possible and just run with it. I did have this other idea though. Make these new Hoodlites appear like some kind of mutant figure ala [Linkin Park's The Hunting Party]

You can kind of sense that I am disturbed by this dilemma. It's been so long since the Hoodlite-focused post and I am just not feeling the whole little critter approach anymore.

The crux of the lore is still there. Native beings of the Core, Have one of the STAB on them. But compared to what they used to look like, It's a big leap of difference. It also helped me improve my way of shaping the Tide element.

Owen is renamed by the way. Gone, gone the form of "Owen", Arise the Hoodlite "Osker Pint". Still trying the Team JOSH approach. But, yeah. Lend me your thoughts. I really want to know.

[ktarchive]

Crush My Bubble Part 42 - The Answer

Gizmo hopped in the front seat next to Dustin and we were off.

I figured Dustin and Colt had mixed feelings about Gizmo. Colt hated the Safebox people, and after the Crispy incident Dustin had soured a fair amount as well. But Gizmo had scored some points in Colt's book when ze showed zir Queerstorian footage to the Lightstone people.

And sure, I had cooled off to Safebox as well.

Godric had tried to get me involved in other things, like Bridge Club or Biking club, but, frankly, they just didn't seem as important. And yet, speaking of Godric…

I still hadn't heard from him, even after another message where I half apologized, half accused him of ghosting me. The silence was starting to feel like a roar...

https://krazybase.wordpress.com

[evolutionsvoid]

The flooded caverns and underground lakes are where the Aegleus resides, as its large size makes traversing the small chutes and streams difficult. Bodies of water that are expansive and deep are perfect for these beasts, as they need plenty of space to swim and find food. Their anatomy should obviously show that these are purely aquatic creatures, as they possess flippers and a streamlined form. Though they are not fast swimmers, they are quite graceful if you watch them! Their many paddles give them a wide range of movement, as they can use them to perform quick turns and spiraling dances. Combined with their long tail and serpentine neck, they can seem to slither through the water with ease! It is an enchanting sight to see! I got the chance to take a boat onto one of these deep lakes, as my guides knew this spot was a favorite for Aegleus. At first I worried about seeing anything in the dark waters, as the caverns were not artificially lit and there were no natural growing lightstones. Once we started paddling into the deeper sections, I found the answer to my question right below us! The waters were filled with tiny glowing creatures who lit up when the water was agitated. Each stroke of our oars sent swirls of starlight through the water, making such a simple task breathtaking and beautiful! I have seen stuff like this in the surface oceans, but the darkness and silence of the caverns made it even more impressive! I didn't think it could get any better until we spotted the Aegleus! They soared and danced through the waters below us, churning up storms of starlight. To see such a leviathan surrounded by swirling light! No painting or description could do such a sight justice! Though their appearance may be intimidating, there is little to fear with these creatures. Aegleus are filter feeders, using the curtains of baleen that hang from their heads to sieve out food. The swirling dances I saw that day was them feeding on the tiny critters that filled the waters. They use their graceful movements to snare any food bits that cross their path, the morsels getting caught in the straining hairs. This means that these beasts essentially feed themselves by swimming, though it isn't a short process! A creature of this size needs lots of food, so they must target nutrient rich areas to get a substantial and efficient meal. The glowing swarm is a good example of this, as the waters were packed with food that day! Aegleus will also use different tricks to snare a meal! With their long necks, they can reach places that other aquatic creatures cannot. Nearby pools and algae-rich shallows are often unreachable for a creature their size, but their necks allow them to stretch over these difficult areas. They can then just dip their baleen into these shallow places and get a whole load of food, all while their bodies remain in the deeper water. They can also use their necks to reach places that are above the water's surface. Waterfalls rain nutrients from the sky, their powerful currents sucking in small morsels and then spewing them out. Aegleus will raise their heads out of the water and place them vertically in the waterfall's shower. This allows them to catch any falling bits, as the water will strain itself as it rushes past! Quite ingenious! Just let the food fall into your mouth! This is another wonderful sight to experience, as you get a nice clear look at these feeding beasts. There was one massive fall that we passed by that had five of them feeding at once, and there were even more in the water! I had to ask how such a place could sustain so many Aegleus at once, as that calls for a lot of nutrients! Vespar told me that the river that formed this waterfall connected to several huge sources of food for tiny critters, thus the water was packed with them. The waterfall was essentially spewing a rich soup and the Aegleus gleefully ate it up. I found this explanation interesting, but a bit vague, so I asked for more details. Valac was all too happy to fill in the gaps. The river flowed far beneath a populated cavern, and it passed right below several waste chambers. There were apparently small streams and cracks that leaked the collected filth into the water, and the little critters loved it. So this gorgeous waterfall and rich habitat were essentially connected to a city's sewer system. Interesting. Well, the nutrients have to get recycled somehow! While these creatures are quite peaceful and calm, they are prepared to defend themselves if danger arises. Aquatic predators are one thing to worry about, and hunters from above are another! They protect themselves with thick armored plates, which also boast some nasty spikes! Their tails are covered in these, which turn them into powerful clubs! Like a hefty mace, they can swing this appendage around and crack a foe right in the noggin! Their other end is just as dangerous, as it ends in a sharp point. They can use their heads like lances, jabbing and spearing those who dare attack them. With a powerful thrust from their flippers, they can surge forth with great power and speed, impaling any who are in front of them. Those who float in boats or rafts must be careful not to earn the ire of these beasts, as their size and weaponry can easily capsize you! Tales of hunters being flung into the water as their craft is impaled upon the snout of an angry Aegleus are not uncommon, and they serve as a warning to those who wish to prey on them. Aegelus are indeed hunted, but this is not a widespread thing. There are many caverns and groups who view the Aegleus as familiars of Ostranel, and no one wants to anger the Keeper of Worlds! It must be their presence in nutrient-rich areas that give this impression, as where else would the emissaries of the Goddess of Life reside? Stories say that they carry messages down to her and this is how she watches her precious waters and keeps them thriving. If one were to hunt these beasts until they were gone from their waters, then Ostranel will be blind to this place. Since she cannot see them or check up on them, then the waters will be neglected and left to stagnate. The fish and creatures will vanish, leaving a sludgy lifeless pool for the greedy people. So though the Aegleus may be hunted in some regions, everyone is sure to keep their populations healthy, as they fear being abandoned by Ostranel and the misery such a thing will bring.   Chlora Myron Dryad Natural Historian ------------------------------------------------- Back down in the Underworld for another beastie! There is always room for one or three dozen more!

[a-dragon-and-an-eagle]

Cassandra McClain’s journal. Day 7

We encountered the first snows today. It was brisk at first. But things soon began to get chilly and the crew has all but migrated bellow decks. Now it is me and a handful of crew still guiding the ship deeper into the northern waters. Its hard to imagine but just a few days ago we were in Lightstone, the last port before the north, and now the only towns we pass are all fishing villages trying to catch their last hauls of fish before the waters freeze up. At least a dozen of them were all named winter home; perhaps that’s a mistranslated or a local joke. Hard to believe that it is still September when I look at the ice in the water, we’ll hopefully be gone before it blocks up our path, it is called the frozen bay for a reason. The mouth of the Drake Serpent river lays at the end of the bay and we hope to reach it by the end of the days voyage.

I’ve asked the crew to prepare their gear for the cold, but most of them seemed to have ignored me. I can only hope the weapons don’t jam from neglect, I hear that the beasts of the north are quiet viscous, but on top of that I fear that others may be pursing the same prize. When my old acquaintance arrived at my home and woke me in the middle of the night he seemed rather convinced that he had been followed and that someone would be coming after him and myself. But I have little fear of that. It wouldn’t be the first time I was attacked by petty theivees trying to seek the prize that I research and venture for days to weeks to even months for. 

The light that even the gods fear. Now that is an enticing name. When he had told me that a recent flash of light could have signaled its return from the depths of which it was laid to rest. Of course I figure its more likely a recent meteor impact. The locals were not forthcoming with information. Anything past the Northern Barrier is taboo I was told. I was also told to never look to cross it unless I want “the giants of the frost to break my ship and drown me in the frozen waters”. But the local legends don’t frighten me any more then the snow. I’ve dealt with curses, phantoms, spirits and much more. All one needs to do is properly prepare and I’ve come ready. Snow gear of course, but more prominently I did my research and have brought all the anti-hexing material and saltpeter that I could get my hands on at such short notice.

As the mountains that make up the barrier draw closer and closer I must admit to a feeling of giddiness. I’m very excited to see what lays just beyond. How many eyes have been past these old snow covered peaks? How few is this elite club I join? So many questions and so many mysteries to uncover. Till the ink in my well freezes over I will note all that I see and hope that the tale captivates all those who lays eyes upon it.

Cassy’s eyes looked away from the parchment of her journal, past the maps that decorated the walls, to the windows and the bobbing floating ice that dotted the dark blue water around her. The shivering cold howled just outside, she let out a breath and a puff of white spilled from her lips. Even in this cabin surrounded by candle light it was cold. She rested her pen next to her journal and stood up. She’d fix up any errors and try to work on the map of the bay she’d started; the one she’d found was just not accurate enough and few ever ventured this far north. She needed to see the view from the top of the ship. Get a glimpse of the glory for herself. 

[woodfinder8754]

Home S In Waterfall Country Estate Johannesburg Luc Zeghers

Standing on one hundred hectares of land, the Whalerock Ridge is located in Plettenberg Bay on the Garden route. Whalerock Ridge provides its occupants a shocking view of the bay, and the again gate of the estate is located roughly 100 meters from the seashore. The residential areas on this estate are Colonial lodges, Oakland village, Links Avenue, Links Ridge, Cape Dutch Village, and Montagu Ridge. And extra residential estates johannesburg stock is coming available on the market “at the correct value level,” Mr. Geffen stated, so it’s simpler to promote.

This, based on Lightstone, is as a end result of buyers within the Cape are willing to sacrifice space for a coastal residence or a view. However, additionally it is probably that the higher worth of property in the Cape compels many buyers to buy a smaller apartment than they might afford in much of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. The Western Cape’s share of sectional title property sales has remained steady at around 18% for the entire 15-year period – with KZN accounting for between 16%-20% – with no discernible development. Regionally, by way of home value inflation, the Western Cape continues to sluggish (7.95% in September) nevertheless the region’s prices are still rising at double the tempo of the relaxation of SA, whereas KZN inflation is presently four.27% and Gauteng 2.83%. Notably the East Rand data the strongest recovery among the many Gauteng metro housing markets. The present market slowdown is thus primarily one of many top-end and the Western Cape understandably cooling after working forward of economic realities.

The 320 acre estate consists of 163 residential stands in phase 1 at an average of 800m² to 1800m², each totally serviced. Offering the Maboneng precinct its second new lease on life since its fi rst redevelopment in 2009 is Divercity’s Jewel City, a R1.8-billion six-block development in the coronary heart of the Johannesburg CBD. Abland MD Jurgens Prinsloo is quoted as having said that the project won’t ignore highway upgrades, as a end result of its size. “Abland undertook intensive traf c impact assessments to get an idea of the traf c impact as quickly as the project is full. Ultimately, there are seven substantial upgrades that we’re doing ranging from the Peter Place intersection, Republic intersection, Mattie intersection, Sandton Drive and William Nicol,” he said. Constructed of glass and metal, this modern estate includes a luxurious, infinity-edge pool and distinctive facilities, including a well being club, bike trails, equestrian amenities and a tennis courtroom.

Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr is representing Texton Property Fund, the main South Africa-based property funding fund formed to invest instantly in earnings producing properties that offer potential for capital appreciation. The Fund was formed in 2006 and listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in August 2011. Our real estate team is presently advising Texton Property Fund on the disposal of 9 of its portfolio properties. These are all advanced matters, as the entire sale agreements must comply with the provisions of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange Listing Requirements as Texton is a public listed entity. Once the phrases are settled, the gross sales may also be introduced by SENS notices. The various buy costs were set off in opposition to amounts owing by every firm to the other and Calgro issued a listed corporate bond observe to the joint venture company.

One of its neigbourhoods includes the Gentleman’s Estate, essentially the most exclusive neighbourhood on the estate that provides residents their own personal stables, backyard and winery. It said many developers at the moment are creating small neighbourhoods throughout the estates, opposed to the old mannequin where homes were spaced evenly around the complete property. Search for Johannesburg luxurious properties with the Sotheby’s International Realty community, your premier useful resource for Johannesburg properties. We have eighty five luxurious properties on the market in Johannesburg, and 245 homes in all of Gauteng. Homes listings embody trip properties, residences, penthouses, luxurious retreats, lake homes, ski chalets, villas, and many more lifestyle choices. Each sale itemizing consists of detailed descriptions, pictures, facilities and neighborhood info for Johannesburg.

Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr represented Transcend, one of many leading South Africa-based residential real estate funding trusts. Our actual estate group is advising Transcend in the acquisition of two,159 residential units from International Housing Solutions Residential Partners 1. The transaction involved the negotiation of a number of comprehensive sale agreements with numerous escrow preparations and complicated switch duty/VAT and competitors law issues. This was a Category 1 transaction by method of the JSE Listing Requirements and required a round to shareholders to acquire shareholder approval, on which our staff was closely concerned.

In the Cape, weak point on the high finish of the market is due extra to costs having run ahead of economic realities and the resultant shift from a sellers’ to a buyers’ market. The larger Fourways space has become greater Johannesburg’s fastest growing centre evolving right into a mini-city within residential estates johannesburg the mould of Sandton metropolis centre. With growing congestion and the rising cost of gas lowering the gap that individuals are prepared to journey each day – there's a robust need to reside near work, schools and retail.

It is at its widest 3 km north to south and 1.5 km west to east, laid out like an upside-down triangle. Bassonia borders equally hilly Glenvista to the west, Gleneagles to the South, the N12 road and Eastcliff to the north, Oakdene to the northeast, and Bassonia Rock within the Meyersdal Nature Estate to the east. Vacant stand centrally situated residential estates johannesburg towards the middle of the prestigious Neighbourhood life-style estate... This portal provides access to info on all tenders made by all public sector organisations in all spheres of presidency.

[superstarstrategies]

Midrand now one of the highest growth areas for young buyers

Midrand is a vast area linking Johannesburg and Pretoria with over R5,6 billion in real estate transactions over the last twelve months to October. It is now one of the fastest growth areas for young buyers with some 47% of sales over the last year to millennial buyers. This is among the highest in the country over the last year according to Charles Vining, managing director of Seeff Sandton and Midrand.

Midrand property offers very accessible prices, although luxury areas and demand for luxury homes are growing. Given that it is built around the N1 and is an excellent base for its accessibility for those who work in the area or around the greater Johannesburg and Pretoria metro areas. The market is dynamic with the area home to a mix of residential along with many commercial, business and retail nodes and agricultural areas.

A new landmark includes the spectacular Mall of Africa, the largest in Africa which adds to attractions such as the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit, Country Club and equestrian facilities.

Prices are very accessible; hence it attracts a large number of first-time buyers and sellers. There is a broad choice for buyers and investors, ranging from affordable apartments to sectional title complexes, freehold homes and gated communities. Luxury developments include Waterfall Estate.

Aside from own-use, the area is also popular for rental investments given the high demand for rental accommodation, says Vining. Young buyers and sellers make up a sizeable portion of the market along with families given the excellent childcare facilities and schools, but the area is also ideal for older buyers looking for a country setting. Although stock is dominated by freehold properties at 53% compared to 27% sectional title and just under 20% estates, sectional title property is the fastest seller. Lightstone data shows that almost two thirds of all sales over the last year are sectional title.

Of the R5.6bn in transactions recorded for the 12-months to the end of September, 72% fall below R1,5 million, a further 42% between R1,5 million and R3 million and about 8% above R3 million. Aside from sectional title, secure properties and gated communities are in demand. Lightstone shows that estate homes are achieving the highest prices. For example, recorded sales include R10,5 million in Saddlebrook Estate and R34,25m in Kyalami Estate.

Within Midrand, there are different areas and price points and Seeff’s agents recommend that sellers, buyers and investors work with a credible agent for the right guidance, especially if you are buying or selling for the first time. There are many aspects to the buying and selling process including understanding the costs, deposit requirements and the processes involved. Buy-to-let investors are for example not always aware of the additional costs related to rental property such as levies for sectional title complexes which can differ greatly. Lower levies are always more attractive for buyers. Sectional title sellers should be aware that buyers are now well informed and often ask for the financials of the complex as they do not want to buy if there is financial mismanagement or where there is a likelihood of special levies being raised in the near future.

Purchasers in new developments should note that the sectional title register is not always done at the time of purchase and may take up to 16-24 months which will result in a back-dated City of Johannesburg (COJ) bill. They should therefore make provision for the rates in situations such as these. Buyers also look for good infrastructure when it comes to roads in the agricultural areas which, in Midrand, are characterised by homes or cottage homes on large plots of land. Buyers of larger properties and small holdings usually want information regarding town planning and permission details such coverage, dwelling permissions and so on. Buyers looking at apartments or homes in properties adjacent to open tracts of land want to know what the plans are for the land.

Landlords should also note that while Midrand has a buoyant rental market and monthly rentals can range from R25,000 to R40,000 per month, top end tenants tend to shop around for the best value for money. Writer : Writer: Gina Meintjies

SOURCE: www.privateproperty.co.za/advice

[hospitality-world-news]

Moxy South Beach Debuts As A Stylish Playful Celebration of Miami's Cosmopolitan Culture, Setting a New Paradigm For Leisure Travel – Hospitality Net

Moxy South Beach Debuts As A Stylish Playful Celebration of Miami’s Cosmopolitan Culture, Setting a New Paradigm For Leisure Travel – Hospitality Net

Moxy Hotels’ First Resort-Style Property Features 202 Rooms, Innovative Design, Six New Dining & Drinking Concepts by The Founders of Coyo Taco, Two Pools and a Beach Club. Miami’s Art Deco District lights up today with the opening of Moxy Miami South Beach. Lightstone, the developers behind three award-winning Moxy hotels in New York City, has created a stylish, playful open-air concept…

[universomovie]

Exterior. Imagem Cortesia de Lightstone

Foram publicadas novas imagens da primeira torre residencial projetada por Adjaye Associates na cidade de Nova Iorque. Localizada no Distrito Financeiro, não muito longe do complexo do World Trade Center a torre será conhecida como 130 Willian e contará com 66 pavimentos e 244 unidades. As obras de fundação já estão em andamento.

Enquanto as primeiras imagens conceituais revelavam uma estrutura com detalhes dourados, as imagens atuais apresentam um edifício composto por um sistema de arcos de concreto inspirado nos tradicionais lofts do bairro. À medida que o edifício vai ganhando altura, estes arcos se invertem gerando uma série de varandas externas. Detalhes em bronze serão utilizados apenas no térreo e nos caixilhos das janelas.

“O projeto da 130 William reconhece a importância do local onde está inserido, uma das ruas mais antigas da cidade de Nova Iorque”, explica David Adjaye. “A partir desta referência histórica, fomos inspirados a criar um edifício que se afasta das tradicionais torres de vidro da cidade e que, em vez disso, comemora a herança da arquitetura tradicional de alvenaria de Nova Iorque marcando presença no skyline de Manhattan”.

Construída pelo Lightstone Group, o edifício oferecerá uma grande variedade de tipologias de apartamentos, desde pequenos estúdios a unidades no ático com até cinco quartos, além de uma abundância de serviços e espaços de uso comum, incluindo um health club e spa, piscinas aquecidas e naturais, saunas, salas de massagem e uma academia com sala de yoga e uma quadra de basquete. Outros elementos exclusivos do projeto são: um teatro IMAX, um simulador de golfe, um lounge, um clube e uma sala de jogos, uma cozinha gourmet com sala de jantar, salas de jogos para crianças, um spa para animais de estimação e terraços ao ar livre. Um observatório panorâmico coroará a torre a quase 245 metros de altura.

No acesso do térreo, uma nova praça pública será criada para fazer a transição entre o espaço urbano e o condomínio residencial, proporcionando agradáveis espaços de encontro para seus moradores.

“Sir David Adjaye é atualmente um dos mais proeminentes arquitetos. Estamos entusiasmados em colaborar com a construção deste edifício emblemático no centro de Manhattan”, disse o presidente da Lightstone, Mitchell Hochberg. “Com o projeto do 130 William, além de oferecer novas unidades residenciais em um condomínio de luxo, o legado arquitetônico dos bairros centrais de Manhattan se manterá vivo”.

As vendas das unidades residenciais devem começar na primavera de 2018, com a previsão de conclusão da obra para a primavera de 2020. Patrick Lynch  Traduzido por Vinicius Libardoni

  News via Lightstone.

Novas imagens da primeira torre residencial projetada por David Adjaye em Nova Iorque Foram publicadas novas imagens da primeira torre residencial projetada por Adjaye Associates na cidade de Nova Iorque…

[writerkingdom]

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Solved Case Analysis: CRM IMPLEMENTATION FAILURE AT CIGNA CORPORATION By Vivek Gupta M Vinaya Kumar

Solved Case Analysis: Crocs Inc. by Marc L. Lipson Gaurav Gupta

Solved Case Analysis: CROWDFUNDING AT THE BROOKLYN WAREHOUSE   Nicola Young Karen Lightstone

Solved Case Analysis: Crown Cork & Seal in 1989 Stephen P.Bradley Sheila Cavanaugh

Solved Case Analysis: CRP PRODUCTS David Wood Robert Klassen

Solved Case Analysis: CULTURE AND LEADERSHIP AT IBM By John Weeks

Solved Case Analysis: CUMBERLAND ENTERTAINMENT A EXPANDING WITH PRIVATE EQUITY By Christoph Zott Abigail Leland

Solved Case Analysis: Currency Crisis in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong by Francis E. Warnock

Solved Case Analysis: Customer Profitability Analysis and Value Based Management at Barclays Bank by Regine Slagmulder Jaeita Mukherjee

Solved Case Analysis: Cutting through the Fog Finding a Future with Fintech by George Allayannis Kayla Cartwright

Solved Case Analysis: CVS Jon Roberts and Josh Flum Video

Solved Case Analysis: Cypress Semiconductor 1.25 Convertible Notes by Robert M. Conroy

Solved Case Analysis: Cypress Semiconductor 1.25 Percent Convertible Notes By Robert M. Conroy

Solved Case Analysis: Dana Hall Funding a Mission F. Warren McFarlan Herman B. Leonard Melissa Tritter

Solved Case Analysis: Danaher Corporation The Hach SL1000 Portable Parallel Water Analyzer by Marc L. Lipson

Solved Case Analysis: Danfoss RC in China A Going Global by Jonathan Story Natasha Lee Evans

Solved Case Analysis: Daniel Dobbins Distillery Inc.William J. Bruns Jr.

Solved Case Analysis: Danville Airlines Andrew Wicks Jenny Mead

Solved Case Analysis: Dardens Luckiest Student 2008 by Phillip E. Pfeifer Samuel E. Bodily

Solved Case Analysis: Dashman Co. Richard S. Meriam Franklin E. Folts George F.F. Lombard

Solved Case Analysis: DAVE ARMSTRONG A George Wu

[walterfrodriguez]

Ex-Vornado CEO Fascitelli and partner score loan for South Beach hotel

Rendering of the Washington Avenue hotel and Michael Fascitelli

New York-based Imperial Companies has secured $45 million in construction financing for a hotel in South Beach.

Records show Washington Squared Owner LLC closed on the loan from Bank of the Ozarks, bringing the company’s total financing for the property to nearly $90 million.

Imperial’s Michael Fascitelli and Eric Birnbaum are building the roughly 300-key hotel at 601 to 685 Washington Avenue. Fascitelli was CEO of Vornado Realty Trust until his resignation in 2013 and is a member of Vornado’s board of trustees. Birnbaum also worked at Vornado, spending about six years at the company in the acquisitions and capital markets group as well as the in-house development team.

As proposed, the seven-story building would include ground-floor retail and a third-floor amenity deck with a pool, private cabanas, club bar, outdoor and indoor cafe, and a concierge desk. The Z-shaped hotel is being designed by Morris Adjmi Architects and Nichols Brosch Wurst Wolfe & Associates with interiors by Ken Fulk. Imperial will self-brand the property, Birnbaum said. It will be completed in about two years.

The LLC paid $36 million for the Washington Avenue block in 2015. Birnbaum said Imperial is the developer and Turnbridge Equities, part of the buying entity, now owns a small portion of the site.

The hotel would be one of the first new large-scale projects on Washington Avenue. In 2015, Miami Beach commissioners approved an ordinance designed to bring hotels, fine dining and new retail to the street. David Lichtenstein’s Lightstone Group is planning Moxy South Beach, a seven-story, 202-room boutique hotel to replace aging storefronts at 915-947 Washington Avenue.

from The Real Deal Miami & Real Estate News News | & Curbed Miami - All https://therealdeal.com/miami/2018/02/05/ex-vornado-ceo-fascitelli-and-partner-score-loan-for-south-beach-hotel/ via IFTTT

[caw4brandon]

- Master of The Crows: Timothy Brian Anderson -

Every trio needs a supervisor to watch over them in case they do anything stupid to get themselves killed or worst, expelled. Meet;

Professor Timothy Brian Anderson - a teacher who acts as the supervisor to the main trio; Sadie, Hector, and Jamie. Professor Anderson is a passionate history teacher at Kingshaven Academy.

Upon first impressions, Professor Anderson stands out with his unique flame-like hair that moves under its own laws of psychics with sentient eyes. Nicknamed as; The Crows. When these eyes are extracted from his head, they will take the form of a star that moves akin to a bird.

These Crows function as Timothy's extra set of eyes and ears to gather intel and observe. The Crows can be seen coming and going as the please. Occasionally, they also act as combat assistance but mostly for emergency getaways. The Crows also have two different eye colors with different signs.

Cyan/ light blue - is their neutral color. When in this state, the Crows are mostly calm and mind heir own business. They would be seen hunting food; small rodents, baby birds or eggs, insects, carrion, seeds, nuts, berries and corn. Additionally, they eat small fish.

Orange - is their color of aggression and hostility. When in state, the Crows will actively hunt for their assigned enemies and attack in groups. (Some would say; "in a Murder")

The Origins of The Crows are still Unknown

As an individual, Professor Anderson is described as eccentric. He loves sharing history and he's a good oracle of information on anything and everything his Crows can find due to his unique skills.

He is also feared for his strictness and his infamous; Thousand Eyes Glare. As the Supervisor of The Lightstone Club; the club that Sadie, Hector and Jamie joined. Timothy served as; their driver, negotiator and on occasion. As backup. He's a respected teacher that helped make History fun and you might even get to pet his Crows.

Disclaimer: This character is a work of fiction, any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

[rollinbrigittenv8]

Interview: Designing for Millennials and the Future of Hotels

George Yabu (left) and Glenn Pushelberg inside the lobby bar of the new Moxy Times Square . The two founders of design firm Yabu Pushelberg have been involved in hotel design for nearly 40 years. Michael Kleinberg

Skift Take: The future of hotel design might be on a smaller scale, but Yabu Pushelberg knows the design aspirations and expectations will be even greater than they have been before.

— Deanna Ting

Toronto- and New York City-based designers George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg have designed properties for some of the biggest names in hospitality for nearly 40 years. Their clients and brands include Ian Schrager, the Four Seasons, Park Hyatt, and the St. Regis, among them.

But their newest hotel project isn’t being marketed as a luxury product. Instead, it’s the 612-room Moxy Times Square, Marriott’s answer to guests who want a hotel that doesn’t forsake style for a lower price point. The property is scheduled to open later this month.

The property’s developer, Lightstone Group, asked Yabu Pushelberg to design the hotel’s guest rooms and public spaces. The Rockwell Group designed the hotel’s dining venues, which will be operated by TAO Group.

The duo, founders of the eponymous firm that bears their last names, are known for their sleek, elegant, contemporary, and sophisticated designs. Translating that design aesthetic to a hotel with much tighter space constraints proved to be a challenge, but one that the two and their design team gladly wanted to undertake. Rooms at the Moxy Times Square range in size from 120 square feet to 350 square feet.

The micro-hotel concept is one that continues to flourish, especially in New York City. This year alone there have been the opening of Schrager’s flagship Public New York, which markets itself as having “luxury for all” and had promoted room rates when it debuted at just $150 a night, although now the rates are often higher. And Pod Hotels, which already two locations in the city, is planning to add two more — one in Times Square and another in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Skift spoke to Yabu and Pushelberg about the unique design challenges presented by micro-hotels, and where the future of hospitality design is headed. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Skift: You’re both very well-known for your hotel designs for brands such as the Four Seasons, Le Meridien, Edition, and Park Hyatt, just to name a few. What was it like to work on a project like the Moxy Times Square, for a project that’s not necessarily considered a traditional luxury hotel?

Glenn Pushelberg: We’re actually very keen to do any project that has a reason to be designed and that can enhance the experience through design. What happens is you get pegged into the obvious categories: These are luxury products, these are luxury designers, and they do all those kind of five-star hotels, which is a wonderful thing to do, but we were keen to do the project with Moxy, and projects like the Edition Hotel, and projects like the Equinox Hotel because they aren’t five-star hotels; they’re more of a lifestyle. Myself, I’m focused more on hotels that are designed, basically, to give you a much more positive and interesting and engaging experience.

This kind of micro-hotel trend that’s going on — we thought that it was a unique and interesting challenge. And the client is wonderful in that they allowed us to design anything and everything that we wanted, including the sink in the hotel room and the furniture, and all the different parts of the hotel. And it truly is something that is unique and has a very thought through and thoughtful design to it, and that’s what we’re interested in.

George Yabu: Because no matter what you paid for your room, you want the same thing, essentially. If you stay at the Four Seasons or Park Hyatt, you want to have enough power outlets for all of your electronic devices, and all the spaces you need to live, or work, or play, or eat in your room — all those different areas. You might want to work from the sofa, or you might want to work from the desk. Everybody wants a decent bathroom facility, with good lighting and enough surface space at your vanity. These are principles everybody has, no matter if you go to a luxury hotel or a budget hotel. It’s how you touch people, it’s how you engage people. That’s what we did for Moxy.

A rendering of the entrance to the new Moxy Times Square, set to open in New York City later this month. Source: Moxy Times Square

Skift: The earlier Moxy properties that first opened in Europe and other parts of the U.S. were sometimes criticized for having designs that seemed a little too cloying, or maybe too Millennial. With the Moxy Times Square project, did you try to counteract those criticisms?

Pushelberg: When we were approached by the developer and also talked with Marriott about the brand, we saw what they did in Europe. We were told by the developer, “We want to make a restart in America and [what was done before is] not appropriate for America; it won’t work.” We agreed with them. They said, “It’s an entry-level or Millennial brand for people who are starting to make a little bit of money and want to stay in a designed, experience hotel.”

We actually put took it upon ourselves and said, “You know what? This is a little bit naïve in the approach. The approach really should be that, regardless of how old I am, it’s really for an informed, interested person that doesn’t want to spend a lot of money on a hotel but wants a great experience.”

Once you broaden that approach to it, you create a design that, to us, has some level of familiarity, but it’s not of the past; it’s of the future. It’s not just a modern hotel that’s generic, but it has some emotion attached to it because it feels friendly to you, but it doesn’t feel trite. We’re not trying to appeal to you by thinking, “Oh yes, Millennials like bright colors, they like that nightclub approach or blah, blah, blah.” We wanted something that had a bit of a sincere approach, and it’s distilled.

That was explained in our approach, and it was agreed to by Marriott and the developers thought, “Oh, that makes sense to us.” We believe the Moxy in Times Square does exactly that. It has familiarity, but it’s not a recreation of the past. It’s forward thinking, and it’s intelligent and then it solves all of the central hotel problems that George just mentioned.

Like storage: There are all the things that you need in a tiny little hotel room. It’s very thoughtful in its approach. It has its own character. It has a personality. It will be loved by many. It has longevity to it, too. You can’t label it like, “This hotel is like a Brooklyn hotel or this hotel is like a Millennial hotel.” This is just a great little hotel. It’s a great hotel with sweet little rooms.

Years and years ago we ended a project in Las Vegas for MGM [a renovation of the massive MGM Grand Resort & Casino], and they have the largest hotel in Las Vegas. The original hotel was actually 600 rooms, and they were like motel-sized rooms, and they kept adding and adding and adding. They gave us the challenge to renovate these tiny rooms. We did the reverse room where the bed didn’t face out to the window, because there’s nothing to see, and you never come home until late at night. We faced the bed in and made the room feel bigger, and we made these tricks. [With these new rooms] they actually got a better room rate than they did in much bigger rooms. It’s not the scale of the room, it’s the experience that you create for people that counts.

Skift: Do you see yourselves doing more hotel design projects for brands outside of the luxury realm going forward?

Pushelberg: We are. We’re creating a hotel for Equinox, a high-performance hotel for people on the go. It’s taking the essence of what that type of person who uses Equinox fitness clubs and live the Equinox lifestyle. That’s not a classic luxury brand.

Edition hotels is not a classic luxury brand, either. We did the first three of them, and we’re doing our fourth Edition in Times Square for next year.

What we’re interested in is not necessarily doing luxury. We’re interested in creating new brands for people, or reinventing brands. I think that’s much more interesting than following a brand standard in existing hotels.

A rendering of a Queen bedroom at the Moxy Times Square. Yabu Pushelberg specially designed the sink featured in every room. Source: Moxy Times Square

Skift: What were some of your favorite details or design elements from the Moxy Times Square and what inspired you most?

Yabu: I think there’s always the romance of staying in hotels in the past. I think that was lost, and a lot of that romance comes from traveling with your parents. When you talk about childhood vacations, for the most part, it’s a very positive experience. Although, perhaps, in reality, it may not have been as wonderful in that respect as it is in your mind.

What we thought we would do is play on the wonderful innocent aspects of vacation days gone by. The old rotary dial telephone. Going to the resort swimming pool. What we did with the shower tiles, it says “No diving.” That sort of response to a memory that you had in the family vacation going down to Florida for example.

One could say these are old clichés, but you have to give it a twist, a little bit of wit if you’re going to rejig these visual memories. Even in the doors that we did for the hotel, going down the going down the corridors, they’re almost like little windows. It’s like going to school, back to school. There were those schoolroom doors with the wired windows, and the little roller blinds for privacy. Obviously, if you are going to do that you can’t be trite, so it had to have a purpose for it. It has messages on it like “Do Not Disturb” on the button.

In high school in Canada we had some buttons on the door when the lab is on. When you’re working in the lab, or you’re working in the darkroom, we have these orange glow buttons for “Do Not Disturb.” When it’s not used for that message, it’s just a light for the corridor. It’s sort of like there are all of these subliminal notions of romantic little happy times, and it’s a little less naïve today because we’re a little bit more aware.

A Quad bedroom at the Moxy Times Square sleeps up to four guests and features a foldable table and chair designed by Yabu Pushelberg. Source: Moxy Times Square

Skift: What were some of the unique design challenges involved with the Moxy project, and what kinds of solutions did you come up with?

Pushelberg: Because of the extreme lack of square footage in the guest rooms, if you didn’t need a desk to work, or you didn’t need one to eat, you could just fold the table and hang it on a hook on the wall. It’s a Shaker design principle that they perfected. Also, you have to do multipurpose furniture.

If you need an extra chair, well, in some rooms you just don’t have space for an extra chair. You can pull away the night table and the night table acts as a chair as well. We had to test it out in terms of live loads and things like that. Visually, you saw there’s a little lumbar support at the back so you know it is something you can sit on. When it’s beside your bed, that lumbar metal tube is a backdrop for your night table.

There’s also lots of storage underneath the bed for your luggage, because you don’t have closets. There’s no space for closets. You have to put your own luggage underneath. There are plenty of hooks, going back to that Shaker notion. It’s basically a continuous peg hook system around the room. You can have spaces for everything. Your towel, your knapsack, your flip-flops, everything. It’s just really cleverly thought out without being, self-consciously, a designer hotel. Things look familiar. “I remember, I remember that. That makes sense.”

With the bathroom of course, you have complete privacy of the water closet. The shower is contained in the bathroom and on the outside, you’ll find the sink space that we had made in France. We have to use the legs of the scepter that holds up the sink. We had to use it to hang the toilet paper and a little shelf trough for the hotel amenities that are provided for free. Everything had to be cleverly thought out, almost like an airplane.

Skift: Do you see micro-hotels design as being the future of hotel design?

Yabu: It’s just the pressure of the growing global travel business. I think that there will be an upward trend in micro-hotels. The cost of real estate in city centers — that’s going to put upward pressure on the size of all hotels, no matter what level.

Pushelberg: With respect to the micro-hotels, I think it’s an emerging part of the hotel market, and a lot of the early examples of it are not that sophisticated. I think, as there is more competition, like with the Moxys that we’re doing, for example, the level of design will elevate itself.

I think that with some of the other [micro-hotels] — I’m not going to name them — but I think it’s Baby Boomer executives pretending to think they know what younger people want out of their hotels. I think it’s a bit naïve. They’re going to be usurped by other more innovative and smarter hoteliers.

Even in [Ian] Schrager’s Public hotel is pretending to be a starter brand, but it’s not really because he’s clever. He’s getting rich. He’s getting $400 to $500 a night now; it’s not really entry-level. The design is much stronger, and the experience is much better.

Yabu: Moxy Times Square was designed by this generation that are going to use it. We’re talking about the team within our office. Our muses are our employees.

The lobby/bar/ lounge area of the Moxy Times Square. Source: Moxy Times Square

Skift: Are hotels doing enough to cater to the next generation of hotel guests? Are you seeing the hotel design space evolve in a better way, than from when you first started working in hotel design?

Pushelberg: I don’t know whether it’s a better way, but I think the way we live and what we want out of our life today is continually changing. As everybody reads, we all want experiences, we don’t work in the same way, we work off smaller devices, we don’t live in the same way as we used to. As designers of environments, we have to be tuned into the changes in the way people make their choices about how they live, and so, for example, how we eat and when we eat.

We tend to not just sit in a formal restaurant for breakfast because it’s boring. We want to have the choice whether we want to have a full meal or we want to just graze on something or we want to catch something as we go. We may want to work with people around us in the lobby, we may want a semi-private area.

It’s much more fluid, and so our job is to give people choices to live the way they want to live. Through technology, our life changes. I remember the Joan Rivers movie when she talked about her daughter, Melissa. She was standing in her formal dining room on the Upper East Side of New York with butler service. She says, “I don’t understand why my daughter is eating a sandwich over a kitchen sink for her lunch.” We live a faster life, so we need those choices. I think that we just need to be tuned into the way society changes and the way we live. Hotels need to respond to that.

Skift: You’re also working on the second Moxy hotel that is opening also in New York with the same developer. Is the design going to be similar to the Times Square property or will it be different? Are the two designs that you are doing for these two hotels going to become the new design standard for Moxy going forward?

Pushelberg: The two hotels that we’re doing for Moxy, they have some things that are the same and of course the basic principles are the same. The hotel in the Flower District, the NoMad District, it has some characteristics that we believe belong in the Flower District and that are separate from Times Square. You open up into a garden shop. The materiality of the public spaces responds more to the area that it’s in.

Design-positive hotels shouldn’t be cookie-cutter. They need the connectivity to each other. Our wish would be that as they build up Moxy, things like the furniture can be a connecting thread. There can be changes in the restaurant and some of the public spaces to give the individual hotels a character more appropriate to the place they’re in.

You need to respond to the place. I think that when you go on vacation and you go in the sunshine at Miami, it’s about the light and the airiness and the feeling of being on vacation. In Chicago, which is more serious and gray city, it has a different experience attached to it. The public spaces need to respond to that.

A meeting studio space at Moxy Times Square. Source: Moxy Times Square

Skift: Has Marriott said anything about taking some of the design elements from the two New York Moxy hotels and incorporating them into future properties?

Pushelberg: We designed this furniture, as George said, that folds up and hangs on the wall — the chairs, the table — a whole bunch of items. We’ve prepared a menu so their developer customers can purchase the furniture for their hotels. We’re hoping that that’s the connected element and it looks like that’s going to happen. They’re promoting that. It makes it easier and faster. It’s great for everyone.

Skift: Any particularly memorable hotel projects that you’ve worked on over the years that really stand out to you?

Pushelberg: I think that working with Ian [Schrager] on the Edition hotel, because it was a game-changer. We just finished a Park Hyatt in Bangkok and Hyatt is a more forward thinking five-star chain and that particular hotel is artistic in its quality, and it’s fluid and it’s modern, but it’s timeless. I think those are interesting challenges.

The first Four Seasons Hotel we did, it opened in 2002 in Japan and was a 57-room hotel. It was a contemporary hotel. It was beautifully executed and had this subliminal Asian-Japanese quality to it without being overt. It was a game changer.

I think doing the W Hotel in Times Square, which was their flagship hotel and had made, at that point, made W a more design-positive brand. It’s diminished itself I think even. There’s a hotel that we did in Beijing three years ago, where we distilled Chinese iconography and made it appropriate for a modern way of living.

We were fortunate to be blessed with doing lots of great projects and those are two examples. I think as we look forward, I think that we’re very, very excited about the Equinox brand and how it will change the game again. I think it will open next year, in about a year and a half, in Hudson Yards [in New York City.]

[touristguidebuzz]

Interview: Designing for Millennials and the Future of Hotels

George Yabu (left) and Glenn Pushelberg inside the lobby bar of the new Moxy Times Square . The two founders of design firm Yabu Pushelberg have been involved in hotel design for nearly 40 years. Michael Kleinberg

Skift Take: The future of hotel design might be on a smaller scale, but Yabu Pushelberg knows the design aspirations and expectations will be even greater than they have been before.

— Deanna Ting

Toronto- and New York City-based designers George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg have designed properties for some of the biggest names in hospitality for nearly 40 years. Their clients and brands include Ian Schrager, the Four Seasons, Park Hyatt, and the St. Regis, among them.

But their newest hotel project isn’t being marketed as a luxury product. Instead, it’s the 612-room Moxy Times Square, Marriott’s answer to guests who want a hotel that doesn’t forsake style for a lower price point. The property is scheduled to open later this month.

The property’s developer, Lightstone Group, asked Yabu Pushelberg to design the hotel’s guest rooms and public spaces. The Rockwell Group designed the hotel’s dining venues, which will be operated by TAO Group.

The duo, founders of the eponymous firm that bears their last names, are known for their sleek, elegant, contemporary, and sophisticated designs. Translating that design aesthetic to a hotel with much tighter space constraints proved to be a challenge, but one that the two and their design team gladly wanted to undertake. Rooms at the Moxy Times Square range in size from 120 square feet to 350 square feet.

The micro-hotel concept is one that continues to flourish, especially in New York City. This year alone there have been the opening of Schrager’s flagship Public New York, which markets itself as having “luxury for all” and had promoted room rates when it debuted at just $150 a night, although now the rates are often higher. And Pod Hotels, which already two locations in the city, is planning to add two more — one in Times Square and another in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Skift spoke to Yabu and Pushelberg about the unique design challenges presented by micro-hotels, and where the future of hospitality design is headed. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Skift: You’re both very well-known for your hotel designs for brands such as the Four Seasons, Le Meridien, Edition, and Park Hyatt, just to name a few. What was it like to work on a project like the Moxy Times Square, for a project that’s not necessarily considered a traditional luxury hotel?

Glenn Pushelberg: We’re actually very keen to do any project that has a reason to be designed and that can enhance the experience through design. What happens is you get pegged into the obvious categories: These are luxury products, these are luxury designers, and they do all those kind of five-star hotels, which is a wonderful thing to do, but we were keen to do the project with Moxy, and projects like the Edition Hotel, and projects like the Equinox Hotel because they aren’t five-star hotels; they’re more of a lifestyle. Myself, I’m focused more on hotels that are designed, basically, to give you a much more positive and interesting and engaging experience.

This kind of micro-hotel trend that’s going on — we thought that it was a unique and interesting challenge. And the client is wonderful in that they allowed us to design anything and everything that we wanted, including the sink in the hotel room and the furniture, and all the different parts of the hotel. And it truly is something that is unique and has a very thought through and thoughtful design to it, and that’s what we’re interested in.

George Yabu: Because no matter what you paid for your room, you want the same thing, essentially. If you stay at the Four Seasons or Park Hyatt, you want to have enough power outlets for all of your electronic devices, and all the spaces you need to live, or work, or play, or eat in your room — all those different areas. You might want to work from the sofa, or you might want to work from the desk. Everybody wants a decent bathroom facility, with good lighting and enough surface space at your vanity. These are principles everybody has, no matter if you go to a luxury hotel or a budget hotel. It’s how you touch people, it’s how you engage people. That’s what we did for Moxy.

A rendering of the entrance to the new Moxy Times Square, set to open in New York City later this month. Source: Moxy Times Square

Skift: The earlier Moxy properties that first opened in Europe and other parts of the U.S. were sometimes criticized for having designs that seemed a little too cloying, or maybe too Millennial. With the Moxy Times Square project, did you try to counteract those criticisms?

Pushelberg: When we were approached by the developer and also talked with Marriott about the brand, we saw what they did in Europe. We were told by the developer, “We want to make a restart in America and [what was done before is] not appropriate for America; it won’t work.” We agreed with them. They said, “It’s an entry-level or Millennial brand for people who are starting to make a little bit of money and want to stay in a designed, experience hotel.”

We actually put took it upon ourselves and said, “You know what? This is a little bit naïve in the approach. The approach really should be that, regardless of how old I am, it’s really for an informed, interested person that doesn’t want to spend a lot of money on a hotel but wants a great experience.”

Once you broaden that approach to it, you create a design that, to us, has some level of familiarity, but it’s not of the past; it’s of the future. It’s not just a modern hotel that’s generic, but it has some emotion attached to it because it feels friendly to you, but it doesn’t feel trite. We’re not trying to appeal to you by thinking, “Oh yes, Millennials like bright colors, they like that nightclub approach or blah, blah, blah.” We wanted something that had a bit of a sincere approach, and it’s distilled.

That was explained in our approach, and it was agreed to by Marriott and the developers thought, “Oh, that makes sense to us.” We believe the Moxy in Times Square does exactly that. It has familiarity, but it’s not a recreation of the past. It’s forward thinking, and it’s intelligent and then it solves all of the central hotel problems that George just mentioned.

Like storage: There are all the things that you need in a tiny little hotel room. It’s very thoughtful in its approach. It has its own character. It has a personality. It will be loved by many. It has longevity to it, too. You can’t label it like, “This hotel is like a Brooklyn hotel or this hotel is like a Millennial hotel.” This is just a great little hotel. It’s a great hotel with sweet little rooms.

Years and years ago we ended a project in Las Vegas for MGM [a renovation of the massive MGM Grand Resort & Casino], and they have the largest hotel in Las Vegas. The original hotel was actually 600 rooms, and they were like motel-sized rooms, and they kept adding and adding and adding. They gave us the challenge to renovate these tiny rooms. We did the reverse room where the bed didn’t face out to the window, because there’s nothing to see, and you never come home until late at night. We faced the bed in and made the room feel bigger, and we made these tricks. [With these new rooms] they actually got a better room rate than they did in much bigger rooms. It’s not the scale of the room, it’s the experience that you create for people that counts.

Skift: Do you see yourselves doing more hotel design projects for brands outside of the luxury realm going forward?

Pushelberg: We are. We’re creating a hotel for Equinox, a high-performance hotel for people on the go. It’s taking the essence of what that type of person who uses Equinox fitness clubs and live the Equinox lifestyle. That’s not a classic luxury brand.

Edition hotels is not a classic luxury brand, either. We did the first three of them, and we’re doing our fourth Edition in Times Square for next year.

What we’re interested in is not necessarily doing luxury. We’re interested in creating new brands for people, or reinventing brands. I think that’s much more interesting than following a brand standard in existing hotels.

A rendering of a Queen bedroom at the Moxy Times Square. Yabu Pushelberg specially designed the sink featured in every room. Source: Moxy Times Square

Skift: What were some of your favorite details or design elements from the Moxy Times Square and what inspired you most?

Yabu: I think there’s always the romance of staying in hotels in the past. I think that was lost, and a lot of that romance comes from traveling with your parents. When you talk about childhood vacations, for the most part, it’s a very positive experience. Although, perhaps, in reality, it may not have been as wonderful in that respect as it is in your mind.

What we thought we would do is play on the wonderful innocent aspects of vacation days gone by. The old rotary dial telephone. Going to the resort swimming pool. What we did with the shower tiles, it says “No diving.” That sort of response to a memory that you had in the family vacation going down to Florida for example.

One could say these are old clichés, but you have to give it a twist, a little bit of wit if you’re going to rejig these visual memories. Even in the doors that we did for the hotel, going down the going down the corridors, they’re almost like little windows. It’s like going to school, back to school. There were those schoolroom doors with the wired windows, and the little roller blinds for privacy. Obviously, if you are going to do that you can’t be trite, so it had to have a purpose for it. It has messages on it like “Do Not Disturb” on the button.

In high school in Canada we had some buttons on the door when the lab is on. When you’re working in the lab, or you’re working in the darkroom, we have these orange glow buttons for “Do Not Disturb.” When it’s not used for that message, it’s just a light for the corridor. It’s sort of like there are all of these subliminal notions of romantic little happy times, and it’s a little less naïve today because we’re a little bit more aware.

A Quad bedroom at the Moxy Times Square sleeps up to four guests and features a foldable table and chair designed by Yabu Pushelberg. Source: Moxy Times Square

Skift: What were some of the unique design challenges involved with the Moxy project, and what kinds of solutions did you come up with?

Pushelberg: Because of the extreme lack of square footage in the guest rooms, if you didn’t need a desk to work, or you didn’t need one to eat, you could just fold the table and hang it on a hook on the wall. It’s a Shaker design principle that they perfected. Also, you have to do multipurpose furniture.

If you need an extra chair, well, in some rooms you just don’t have space for an extra chair. You can pull away the night table and the night table acts as a chair as well. We had to test it out in terms of live loads and things like that. Visually, you saw there’s a little lumbar support at the back so you know it is something you can sit on. When it’s beside your bed, that lumbar metal tube is a backdrop for your night table.

There’s also lots of storage underneath the bed for your luggage, because you don’t have closets. There’s no space for closets. You have to put your own luggage underneath. There are plenty of hooks, going back to that Shaker notion. It’s basically a continuous peg hook system around the room. You can have spaces for everything. Your towel, your knapsack, your flip-flops, everything. It’s just really cleverly thought out without being, self-consciously, a designer hotel. Things look familiar. “I remember, I remember that. That makes sense.”

With the bathroom of course, you have complete privacy of the water closet. The shower is contained in the bathroom and on the outside, you’ll find the sink space that we had made in France. We have to use the legs of the scepter that holds up the sink. We had to use it to hang the toilet paper and a little shelf trough for the hotel amenities that are provided for free. Everything had to be cleverly thought out, almost like an airplane.

Skift: Do you see micro-hotels design as being the future of hotel design?

Yabu: It’s just the pressure of the growing global travel business. I think that there will be an upward trend in micro-hotels. The cost of real estate in city centers — that’s going to put upward pressure on the size of all hotels, no matter what level.

Pushelberg: With respect to the micro-hotels, I think it’s an emerging part of the hotel market, and a lot of the early examples of it are not that sophisticated. I think, as there is more competition, like with the Moxys that we’re doing, for example, the level of design will elevate itself.

I think that with some of the other [micro-hotels] — I’m not going to name them — but I think it’s Baby Boomer executives pretending to think they know what younger people want out of their hotels. I think it’s a bit naïve. They’re going to be usurped by other more innovative and smarter hoteliers.

Even in [Ian] Schrager’s Public hotel is pretending to be a starter brand, but it’s not really because he’s clever. He’s getting rich. He’s getting $400 to $500 a night now; it’s not really entry-level. The design is much stronger, and the experience is much better.

Yabu: Moxy Times Square was designed by this generation that are going to use it. We’re talking about the team within our office. Our muses are our employees.

The lobby/bar/ lounge area of the Moxy Times Square. Source: Moxy Times Square

Skift: Are hotels doing enough to cater to the next generation of hotel guests? Are you seeing the hotel design space evolve in a better way, than from when you first started working in hotel design?

Pushelberg: I don’t know whether it’s a better way, but I think the way we live and what we want out of our life today is continually changing. As everybody reads, we all want experiences, we don’t work in the same way, we work off smaller devices, we don’t live in the same way as we used to. As designers of environments, we have to be tuned into the changes in the way people make their choices about how they live, and so, for example, how we eat and when we eat.

We tend to not just sit in a formal restaurant for breakfast because it’s boring. We want to have the choice whether we want to have a full meal or we want to just graze on something or we want to catch something as we go. We may want to work with people around us in the lobby, we may want a semi-private area.

It’s much more fluid, and so our job is to give people choices to live the way they want to live. Through technology, our life changes. I remember the Joan Rivers movie when she talked about her daughter, Melissa. She was standing in her formal dining room on the Upper East Side of New York with butler service. She says, “I don’t understand why my daughter is eating a sandwich over a kitchen sink for her lunch.” We live a faster life, so we need those choices. I think that we just need to be tuned into the way society changes and the way we live. Hotels need to respond to that.

Skift: You’re also working on the second Moxy hotel that is opening also in New York with the same developer. Is the design going to be similar to the Times Square property or will it be different? Are the two designs that you are doing for these two hotels going to become the new design standard for Moxy going forward?

Pushelberg: The two hotels that we’re doing for Moxy, they have some things that are the same and of course the basic principles are the same. The hotel in the Flower District, the NoMad District, it has some characteristics that we believe belong in the Flower District and that are separate from Times Square. You open up into a garden shop. The materiality of the public spaces responds more to the area that it’s in.

Design-positive hotels shouldn’t be cookie-cutter. They need the connectivity to each other. Our wish would be that as they build up Moxy, things like the furniture can be a connecting thread. There can be changes in the restaurant and some of the public spaces to give the individual hotels a character more appropriate to the place they’re in.

You need to respond to the place. I think that when you go on vacation and you go in the sunshine at Miami, it’s about the light and the airiness and the feeling of being on vacation. In Chicago, which is more serious and gray city, it has a different experience attached to it. The public spaces need to respond to that.

A meeting studio space at Moxy Times Square. Source: Moxy Times Square

Skift: Has Marriott said anything about taking some of the design elements from the two New York Moxy hotels and incorporating them into future properties?

Pushelberg: We designed this furniture, as George said, that folds up and hangs on the wall — the chairs, the table — a whole bunch of items. We’ve prepared a menu so their developer customers can purchase the furniture for their hotels. We’re hoping that that’s the connected element and it looks like that’s going to happen. They’re promoting that. It makes it easier and faster. It’s great for everyone.

Skift: Any particularly memorable hotel projects that you’ve worked on over the years that really stand out to you?

Pushelberg: I think that working with Ian [Schrager] on the Edition hotel, because it was a game-changer. We just finished a Park Hyatt in Bangkok and Hyatt is a more forward thinking five-star chain and that particular hotel is artistic in its quality, and it’s fluid and it’s modern, but it’s timeless. I think those are interesting challenges.

The first Four Seasons Hotel we did, it opened in 2002 in Japan and was a 57-room hotel. It was a contemporary hotel. It was beautifully executed and had this subliminal Asian-Japanese quality to it without being overt. It was a game changer.

I think doing the W Hotel in Times Square, which was their flagship hotel and had made, at that point, made W a more design-positive brand. It’s diminished itself I think even. There’s a hotel that we did in Beijing three years ago, where we distilled Chinese iconography and made it appropriate for a modern way of living.

We were fortunate to be blessed with doing lots of great projects and those are two examples. I think as we look forward, I think that we’re very, very excited about the Equinox brand and how it will change the game again. I think it will open next year, in about a year and a half, in Hudson Yards [in New York City.]

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After the dramatic shutdown of Orlando’s Artegon ‘anti-mall,’ the artists and vendors wonder how it all went wrong

After the dramatic shutdown of Orlando’s Artegon ‘anti-mall,’ the artists and vendors wonder how it all went wrong

By Monivette Cordeiro

Photo by Chris Tobar Rodriguez

Dozens of artists and vendors arrived the morning of Jan. 12 for what they thought was a routine meeting between themselves and the management staff of Artegon Marketplace, Orlando’s two-year-old “anti-mall” on International Drive. In hindsight, maybe the presence of Orlando Police officers and bodyguards should have tipped them off something was out of the ordinary.

Instead, the group known for its eclectic art sat crowded in front of the Book Warehouse to listen to David Miskin, the chief marketing officer at Lightstone Group, Artegon’s New York-based parent company, which owns $2.5 billion in real estate projects. After a few pleasantries, Sina Sutter remembers the gasps in the room when Miskin told them it was over – Artegon was closing.

“When he said we had to leave, that whole group of 60 to 70 people got up and started asking, ‘What? No! How? Why?’” she says in Spanish. “Everyone was left uncertain. These were people that had invested millions of dollars into this. What do you mean I have to move in 10 to 15 days?”

Since closing, Artegon has only released a short statement from its end, saying, “Lightstone will be taking its Artegon Marketplace property in a new direction. While it was a difficult decision to discontinue operations, we are thankful to our team in Orlando, and to our tenants, for their hard work and dedication over the past several years.” OPD spokeswoman Wanda Miglio confirmed Artegon actually hired police officers to work there for the closing, though she couldn’t immediately confirm how many.

Sutter, who opened a fine art gallery called Pinturas that featured her canvas paintings with hand-cut glass, says she felt like she lost family.

“Artegon was the ideal place for artists in Orlando because there was nothing like it,” she says. “There’s festivals and events, but no organization, no institution, had given a space like that for artists to develop their talent and sell their products in a fixed place. And to me, this was more than just a business. It was a way of life. We all were dedicated to what we did, and we were always sharing with one another. It was a space for creation.”

Photo by Chris Tobar Rodriguez

The Artegon sign is no longer lit up

Months earlier, Artegon staff had calmed down vendors who were worried because the mall was up for sale, assuring them that if someone bought the property they would let them know, says Sutter’s friend Carmen Lopez. The owner of Bleu Beach Fashion, Lopez created bags, jewelry and clothes out of recycled materials, such as old maps, at Artegon.

“They told us we could keep working and that they were getting new vendors and signing new contracts,” she says in Spanish. “Logically, you’d think, ‘If they’re leaving, they wouldn’t be bringing in new people.’ So we stayed calm – until that meeting where they told us we had to leave. I asked, ‘Who did you sell it to?’ They said, ‘It’s not sold. We’re just closing it.’”

Weeks after the “anti-ordinary anti-mall” was shut down, the fallout continues, with larger vendors filing several lawsuits against Artegon for terminating leases without warning and allegedly causing them millions of dollars in damages. Meanwhile, smaller vendors and artists, still grappling with the loss of their second homes and livelihoods, wonder how one of Orlando’s most innovative ideas came crashing down.

Artegon was built on the decaying remains of the Festival Bay Mall, a floundering shopping center that never managed to catch a crowd, which was a pretty rare feat given its prime location in the tourist district.

Perpetually empty, the mall that opened in the early 2000s couldn���t fill its empty retail spaces, and at times, had entire corridors closed. Festival Bay, like many “Class C” malls around the country, was in danger of dying and needed to reinvent itself, says Steven Kirn, the executive director of Miller Center for Retailing Education and Research at the University of Florida.

Unlike a “Class A” mall, like the Mall at Millenia, or even a “Class B” mall, like the Florida Mall, Kirn says Class C malls are usually on the brink of extinction and try to stay relevant by adding movie theaters, health clubs, community centers or even DMV bureaus. Sometimes they’ll add more restaurants, or try to create a food hall or artisan market.

Festival Bay took the artisanal route by reinventing itself as Artegon after it was acquired by Paragon Outlets, a subsidiary of Lightstone. When it opened in 2014, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer predicted the 1.1 million-square-foot shopping center would be an “icon” in the city and an overnight go-to destination for the millions that visit every year.

Photo by Chris Tobar Rodriguez

Shuttered spaces inside Artegon

Alberto Quintero arrived there a few months after the mall’s opening to start a gallery called Fusion Art Group in one of the smaller central spaces, which were a maze of chainlink-fenced stalls. The more than 100 vendors varied in their crafts (from professional glassblowing to collectible comics), but they all were excited and eager to get to work, Quintero says. But then the revolving door started: Smaller pop-up shops would leave Artegon as more filtered in. Rent was affordable, but single owners struggled to sell to the small crowds and abide by Artegon’s strict hours, which obligated them to be at the mall seven days a week, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on most days.

“I loved the space, the concept, the people that were around me, but the management was a bit brisk,” he says in Spanish. “They never really listened to us or took our ideas into account. Bad marketing and a lack of human quality made that project fail. But I was happy, in spite of everything. People enjoyed my gallery, and I invested a lot in it.”

In 2015, the Orlando Sentinel reported control of Artegon had shifted to the parent company Lightstone and its employees, including chief creative officer David Miskin. Miskin helped reinvent the stores by adding more colorful art pieces throughout and replacing the vendors’ wire cages with actual storefronts. Artegon also announced plans for a food hall that would bring in unique restaurants.

When Doug Snider arrived there 11 months ago to open a pop-up shop dedicated to wood sculptures, his rent equaled about $700 every month; he was simply charged a percentage of his sales.

Snider says it was a good deal until he decided to join with other artists and expand into a co-op called Wild Life Gallery. In addition to raising his rent with a base fee, Artegon made him pay thousands to have the visual team decorate his store and into a security deposit from which the mall could deduct $100 for each hour his store failed to operate. Snider adds that the mall included terms in his contract that allowed them to terminate his lease at any time. (It may sound draconian, but UF’s Steve Kirn says leases for smaller shops in most malls usually include a base rate and a percentage of sales, along with charges for amenities and open-hours requirements.)

“The marketplace was like a revolving door for vendors,” Snider says. “The nine months that I was there I saw at least 25 stores open and close because the first three months the rent would be only 20 percent of all sales, which is the bait. Then, they would make the owners pay a large deposit, visual team fees, sign fees and make a good investment thinking they would not leave when the three-month lease was up and the much higher rent kicked in.”

Photo by Chris Tobar Rodriguez

Multiple Artegon shop owners told Orlando Weekly that several times, Artegon told them a new restaurant or business was coming that never materialized. Different owners also complained that they never understood the marketing of Artegon as an “anti-mall” and believed it confused people. OW reached out to Artegon management and the Lightstone Group for comment but did not hear back from either by press time.

Still, Snider says he liked his work, and last December he signed a six-month contract with Artegon that lowered his rent slightly.

“But I thought I smelled a rat when they negotiated to lower it,” he says. “My lease started on Jan. 1 and they gave us notice of termination on Jan. 12. This has cost me approximately $50,000 to $60,000 in lost revenue and additional equipment and decoration I purchased after I renewed my lease. It’s inhumane.”

Artegon was more successful for some than others, like Jeffrey and Kristin Howard, owners of Kick Bright Shop & Buttons.

“It just doesn’t make any sense that it shut down because everything was better,” Jeffrey Howard says. “Traffic was better, money was coming into my business, my neighbor’s business. We stuck through the times when Artegon wasn’t doing so great and just when it was hitting its stride, they just stopped.”

Some well-known stores, like Gods & Monsters, have found new locations after the mall closed, but smaller shops like Kick Bright are still looking for a home a month after the shut down.

“I’m still booking orders out of the house and pop-up markets, but we can’t open a physical brick-and-mortar,” Kristin Howard says. “We couldn’t afford that type of rent.”

It may never be clear why Artegon failed, but what we do know is that it’s part of the decades-long trend of the declining mall.

“Places where you built a mall before have entirely different communities and markets than what was there 50 years ago,” Kirn says. “Populations change, income levels change. … Virtually no enclosed malls have been built in the last five years. That style of shopping is going away.”

Heidi and Tony Wentzell opened their first business knowing they would be evicted in two weeks.

Photo by Chris Tobar Rodriguez

The Wentzells opened the Hoppy Cellar, a craft beer and wine bar, the night of Jan. 12, just hours after other vendors heard the news that Artegon was closing. They were supposed to open at the mall the following week, but after hearing from a friend that Artegon was shutting down, the couple rushed to open so they could sell the inventory they had invested in. On Jan. 26, the Hoppy Cellar closed, along with the rest of the mall, except for retail anchors like Bass Pro Shops, Ron Jon Surf Shop, the Cinemark theater, Putting Edge mini-golf course, Boot Barn, Fuddruckers and Sky Zone.

“It was a terrible experience,” Tony Wentzell writes in an email. “We were completely misled in bad faith.”

The Wentzells say they quit their corporate jobs last year to fulfill their dream of opening the Hoppy Cellar and signed a contract with Artegon in October 2016. They were excited about the new venture and thought things were going well. Three days before Artegon announced it was closing, the couple was still receiving emails from their leasing agent about an invoice for the store signs.

“Higher-ups within the mall and Lightstone knew that it was going to close and they could have put a stop to us spending more of our money,” Wentzell says. “All they cared about was collecting as much money from us as they could before they closed.”

The couple emailed the senior general manager of the mall to ask for the return of their security deposit and other investments into the bar. The Wentzells say they have not received a response or money from anyone at Artegon or Lightstone. (NOTE: After publication, a member of the PR firm retained by Lightstone replied to our queries with the following response: “Their security deposit refund was in queue for 30 days from the termination date, per their license agreement. Artegon has asked accounting to accelerate this specific tenant so they will have their refund sooner. It is not Artegon’s intention to withhold any security deposits, or for that matter any money which they are not entitled to under the license agreements.”) The Wentzells couldn’t provide a copy of their contract due to their traveling schedule, but another Artegon contract OW obtained says Artegon was a shopping center that was “undergoing redevelopment,” and that if the owners decided not to continue the mall’s redevelopment, Artegon could terminate anyone’s lease or license via a written notice. The contract says the licensee would have no right to recover any costs or damages from Artegon. Multiple vendors from Artegon say each of their contracts were slightly different, though all of them mentioned a similar policy. Some of Artegon’s contracts also differentiate between “licenses” and “leases.”

“I also personally called the asset manager of Lightstone Group and left him a voicemail and wrote him an email requesting they write us a check for the money we lost since they had screwed us over so bad,” Wentzell says. “Of course we never heard from him. I’ve spoken with attorneys and they all say it’s not worth the legal costs to recover the money we put into the business.”

While the Wentzells have decided not to sue as they relocate their business, other vendors are getting ready for a fight. So far, Sky Zone Trampoline Park, Sky Trail, NYZ at Orlando (a zombie survival attraction that was scheduled to open) and Seed of Joy LLC have filed lawsuits against Artegon’s owner, FB Orlando Acquisition Company LLC, a subsidiary of Lightstone Group. Winter Park lawyer Tucker Byrd represents the first three plaintiffs and says he has more clients that plan to file.

“No explanation was given to them,” Byrd says. “They were just told to get out, and get out fast.”

In the 102-page complaint filed by Sky Zone, the trampoline park alleges it invested $2 million in capital improvements to its 25,000-square-foot unit when it received a notice on Jan. 12, without prior warning, that Artegon had terminated all leases and demanded vendors vacate the premise within two weeks – meaning the number of visitors was likely to drop precipitously.

“[Artegon] attempted to justify its actions by concocting the excuse that the center was still under ‘redevelopment,’ and thus terminable under the leases,” the lawsuit says. “Defendant had ‘redeveloped’ the center years ago, even holding a ‘grand opening,’ to celebrate the repurposing and re-theming of the center, converting it from the failed ‘Festival Bay Mall,’ into the Artegon Marketplace.

“The recent attempt to contradict themselves, all part of a thinly-veiled attempt to absolve itself of lawful obligations under leases with tenants in the center, has interfered with Sky Zone’s lease, adversely impacted its right to quiet enjoyment, and caused damages.”

Photo by Chris Tobar Rodriguez

Byrd says it’s pretty clear Artegon was “looking for any reason to try to empty the mall.”

“Sky Trail, for example, was never told their lease was being terminated and was being allowed to continue, but Artegon locked the front doors,” Byrd says. “How can you possibly tell them, ‘You can continue to use your space,’ but then not let any patrons into the mall?”

Sky Zone also alleges after it entered into its lease with Artegon, several of the larger tenants that the mall had said would move in, like the Radbourne Center skate park or Berghoff’s Oktoberfest brewery, never materialized. By the time Sky Zone opened in 2015, Artegon had sold the Cinemark theater and Bass Pro Shops. The mall “became the constant source of rumors about a potential sale to theme park developers in the Orlando tourist market,” the lawsuit says, prompting Artegon to assure its tenants in September 2016 that it would continue operating.

“The combined pressures of challenges with tenant occupation, the liquidation of outparcels, and the prospects of reaping a substantial sum from selling off the property, impelled [Artegon] to look for and pursue a strategy to terminate leases in the center, even without justification,” the lawsuit says. “Defendant’s actions have cast a pall over the center, interfering with Sky Zone’s right to quiet enjoyment of the premises, by discouraging customers from continuing to use or book for future use the Sky Zone facilities for events, including charity events and children’s birthday parties, many of which have already been scheduled.”

Byrd says some of his clients are still getting notices from Artegon to pay for this month’s rent. Byrd says it may have been cheaper for the mall’s owner to pay off breached contracts and sell to a developer than to keep running the artisan mall.

“I guess you’d risk losing millions if you can still make multiple of millions,” he says. “Maybe they thought we’d give up and go away. But they picked on the wrong group of tenants because we fully intend to protect their interests. Sometimes the underdog does have a chance.”

Meanwhile, smaller vendors like Sina Sutter and Carmen Lopez don’t plan to sue, but are still looking for a space to practice their craft. Lopez misses the little things about Artegon – seeing her friends every morning, getting hugs from clients. She doesn’t regret her two years there.

“A lot of bad stuff happened, but that didn’t interest us,” she says. “When you’re an artist, you see things differently. I loved showing my clients how I make my bags. People went there to find their creativity and we helped them find it.”

This article first appeared in Orlando Weekly  http://www.orlandoweekly.com/orlando/after-the-dramatic-shutdown-of-orlandos-artegon-anti-mall-the-artists-and-vendors-wonder-how-it-all-went-wrong/Content?oid=2692097&utm_source=widget&utm_medium=toc&utm_campaign=rightrail&utm_content=HomeThisWeek

The post After the dramatic shutdown of Orlando’s Artegon ‘anti-mall,’ the artists and vendors wonder how it all went wrong appeared first on Byrd & Campbell.

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After the dramatic shutdown of Orlando’s Artegon ‘anti-mall,’ the artists and vendors wonder how it all went wrong

After the dramatic shutdown of Orlando’s Artegon ‘anti-mall,’ the artists and vendors wonder how it all went wrong

By Monivette Cordeiro

Photo by Chris Tobar Rodriguez

Dozens of artists and vendors arrived the morning of Jan. 12 for what they thought was a routine meeting between themselves and the management staff of Artegon Marketplace, Orlando’s two-year-old “anti-mall” on International Drive. In hindsight, maybe the presence of Orlando Police officers and bodyguards should have tipped them off something was out of the ordinary.

Instead, the group known for its eclectic art sat crowded in front of the Book Warehouse to listen to David Miskin, the chief marketing officer at Lightstone Group, Artegon’s New York-based parent company, which owns $2.5 billion in real estate projects. After a few pleasantries, Sina Sutter remembers the gasps in the room when Miskin told them it was over – Artegon was closing.

“When he said we had to leave, that whole group of 60 to 70 people got up and started asking, ‘What? No! How? Why?‘” she says in Spanish. “Everyone was left uncertain. These were people that had invested millions of dollars into this. What do you mean I have to move in 10 to 15 days?”

Since closing, Artegon has only released a short statement from its end, saying, “Lightstone will be taking its Artegon Marketplace property in a new direction. While it was a difficult decision to discontinue operations, we are thankful to our team in Orlando, and to our tenants, for their hard work and dedication over the past several years.” OPD spokeswoman Wanda Miglio confirmed Artegon actually hired police officers to work there for the closing, though she couldn’t immediately confirm how many.

Sutter, who opened a fine art gallery called Pinturas that featured her canvas paintings with hand-cut glass, says she felt like she lost family.

“Artegon was the ideal place for artists in Orlando because there was nothing like it,” she says. “There’s festivals and events, but no organization, no institution, had given a space like that for artists to develop their talent and sell their products in a fixed place. And to me, this was more than just a business. It was a way of life. We all were dedicated to what we did, and we were always sharing with one another. It was a space for creation.”

Photo by Chris Tobar Rodriguez

The Artegon sign is no longer lit up

Months earlier, Artegon staff had calmed down vendors who were worried because the mall was up for sale, assuring them that if someone bought the property they would let them know, says Sutter’s friend Carmen Lopez. The owner of Bleu Beach Fashion, Lopez created bags, jewelry and clothes out of recycled materials, such as old maps, at Artegon.

“They told us we could keep working and that they were getting new vendors and signing new contracts,” she says in Spanish. “Logically, you’d think, ‘If they’re leaving, they wouldn’t be bringing in new people.’ So we stayed calm – until that meeting where they told us we had to leave. I asked, ‘Who did you sell it to?’ They said, ‘It’s not sold. We’re just closing it.'”

Weeks after the “anti-ordinary anti-mall” was shut down, the fallout continues, with larger vendors filing several lawsuits against Artegon for terminating leases without warning and allegedly causing them millions of dollars in damages. Meanwhile, smaller vendors and artists, still grappling with the loss of their second homes and livelihoods, wonder how one of Orlando’s most innovative ideas came crashing down.

Artegon was built on the decaying remains of the Festival Bay Mall, a floundering shopping center that never managed to catch a crowd, which was a pretty rare feat given its prime location in the tourist district.

Perpetually empty, the mall that opened in the early 2000s couldn’t fill its empty retail spaces, and at times, had entire corridors closed. Festival Bay, like many “Class C” malls around the country, was in danger of dying and needed to reinvent itself, says Steven Kirn, the executive director of Miller Center for Retailing Education and Research at the University of Florida.

Unlike a “Class A” mall, like the Mall at Millenia, or even a “Class B” mall, like the Florida Mall, Kirn says Class C malls are usually on the brink of extinction and try to stay relevant by adding movie theaters, health clubs, community centers or even DMV bureaus. Sometimes they’ll add more restaurants, or try to create a food hall or artisan market.

Festival Bay took the artisanal route by reinventing itself as Artegon after it was acquired by Paragon Outlets, a subsidiary of Lightstone. When it opened in 2014, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer predicted the 1.1 million-square-foot shopping center would be an “icon” in the city and an overnight go-to destination for the millions that visit every year.

Photo by Chris Tobar Rodriguez

Shuttered spaces inside Artegon

Alberto Quintero arrived there a few months after the mall’s opening to start a gallery called Fusion Art Group in one of the smaller central spaces, which were a maze of chainlink-fenced stalls. The more than 100 vendors varied in their crafts (from professional glassblowing to collectible comics), but they all were excited and eager to get to work, Quintero says. But then the revolving door started: Smaller pop-up shops would leave Artegon as more filtered in. Rent was affordable, but single owners struggled to sell to the small crowds and abide by Artegon’s strict hours, which obligated them to be at the mall seven days a week, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on most days.

“I loved the space, the concept, the people that were around me, but the management was a bit brisk,” he says in Spanish. “They never really listened to us or took our ideas into account. Bad marketing and a lack of human quality made that project fail. But I was happy, in spite of everything. People enjoyed my gallery, and I invested a lot in it.”

In 2015, the Orlando Sentinel reported control of Artegon had shifted to the parent company Lightstone and its employees, including chief creative officer David Miskin. Miskin helped reinvent the stores by adding more colorful art pieces throughout and replacing the vendors’ wire cages with actual storefronts. Artegon also announced plans for a food hall that would bring in unique restaurants.

When Doug Snider arrived there 11 months ago to open a pop-up shop dedicated to wood sculptures, his rent equaled about $700 every month; he was simply charged a percentage of his sales.

Snider says it was a good deal until he decided to join with other artists and expand into a co-op called Wild Life Gallery. In addition to raising his rent with a base fee, Artegon made him pay thousands to have the visual team decorate his store and into a security deposit from which the mall could deduct $100 for each hour his store failed to operate. Snider adds that the mall included terms in his contract that allowed them to terminate his lease at any time. (It may sound draconian, but UF’s Steve Kirn says leases for smaller shops in most malls usually include a base rate and a percentage of sales, along with charges for amenities and open-hours requirements.)

“The marketplace was like a revolving door for vendors,” Snider says. “The nine months that I was there I saw at least 25 stores open and close because the first three months the rent would be only 20 percent of all sales, which is the bait. Then, they would make the owners pay a large deposit, visual team fees, sign fees and make a good investment thinking they would not leave when the three-month lease was up and the much higher rent kicked in.”

Photo by Chris Tobar Rodriguez

Multiple Artegon shop owners told Orlando Weekly that several times, Artegon told them a new restaurant or business was coming that never materialized. Different owners also complained that they never understood the marketing of Artegon as an “anti-mall” and believed it confused people. OW reached out to Artegon management and the Lightstone Group for comment but did not hear back from either by press time.

Still, Snider says he liked his work, and last December he signed a six-month contract with Artegon that lowered his rent slightly.

“But I thought I smelled a rat when they negotiated to lower it,” he says. “My lease started on Jan. 1 and they gave us notice of termination on Jan. 12. This has cost me approximately $50,000 to $60,000 in lost revenue and additional equipment and decoration I purchased after I renewed my lease. It’s inhumane.”

Artegon was more successful for some than others, like Jeffrey and Kristin Howard, owners of Kick Bright Shop & Buttons.

“It just doesn’t make any sense that it shut down because everything was better,” Jeffrey Howard says. “Traffic was better, money was coming into my business, my neighbor’s business. We stuck through the times when Artegon wasn’t doing so great and just when it was hitting its stride, they just stopped.”

Some well-known stores, like Gods & Monsters, have found new locations after the mall closed, but smaller shops like Kick Bright are still looking for a home a month after the shut down.

“I’m still booking orders out of the house and pop-up markets, but we can’t open a physical brick-and-mortar,” Kristin Howard says. “We couldn’t afford that type of rent.”

It may never be clear why Artegon failed, but what we do know is that it’s part of the decades-long trend of the declining mall.

“Places where you built a mall before have entirely different communities and markets than what was there 50 years ago,” Kirn says. “Populations change, income levels change. … Virtually no enclosed malls have been built in the last five years. That style of shopping is going away.”

Heidi and Tony Wentzell opened their first business knowing they would be evicted in two weeks.

Photo by Chris Tobar Rodriguez

The Wentzells opened the Hoppy Cellar, a craft beer and wine bar, the night of Jan. 12, just hours after other vendors heard the news that Artegon was closing. They were supposed to open at the mall the following week, but after hearing from a friend that Artegon was shutting down, the couple rushed to open so they could sell the inventory they had invested in. On Jan. 26, the Hoppy Cellar closed, along with the rest of the mall, except for retail anchors like Bass Pro Shops, Ron Jon Surf Shop, the Cinemark theater, Putting Edge mini-golf course, Boot Barn, Fuddruckers and Sky Zone.

“It was a terrible experience,” Tony Wentzell writes in an email. “We were completely misled in bad faith.”

The Wentzells say they quit their corporate jobs last year to fulfill their dream of opening the Hoppy Cellar and signed a contract with Artegon in October 2016. They were excited about the new venture and thought things were going well. Three days before Artegon announced it was closing, the couple was still receiving emails from their leasing agent about an invoice for the store signs.

“Higher-ups within the mall and Lightstone knew that it was going to close and they could have put a stop to us spending more of our money,” Wentzell says. “All they cared about was collecting as much money from us as they could before they closed.”

The couple emailed the senior general manager of the mall to ask for the return of their security deposit and other investments into the bar. The Wentzells say they have not received a response or money from anyone at Artegon or Lightstone. (NOTE: After publication, a member of the PR firm retained by Lightstone replied to our queries with the following response: “Their security deposit refund was in queue for 30 days from the termination date, per their license agreement. Artegon has asked accounting to accelerate this specific tenant so they will have their refund sooner. It is not Artegon’s intention to withhold any security deposits, or for that matter any money which they are not entitled to under the license agreements.”) The Wentzells couldn’t provide a copy of their contract due to their traveling schedule, but another Artegon contract OW obtained says Artegon was a shopping center that was “undergoing redevelopment,” and that if the owners decided not to continue the mall’s redevelopment, Artegon could terminate anyone’s lease or license via a written notice. The contract says the licensee would have no right to recover any costs or damages from Artegon. Multiple vendors from Artegon say each of their contracts were slightly different, though all of them mentioned a similar policy. Some of Artegon’s contracts also differentiate between “licenses” and “leases.”

“I also personally called the asset manager of Lightstone Group and left him a voicemail and wrote him an email requesting they write us a check for the money we lost since they had screwed us over so bad,” Wentzell says. “Of course we never heard from him. I’ve spoken with attorneys and they all say it’s not worth the legal costs to recover the money we put into the business.”

While the Wentzells have decided not to sue as they relocate their business, other vendors are getting ready for a fight. So far, Sky Zone Trampoline Park, Sky Trail, NYZ at Orlando (a zombie survival attraction that was scheduled to open) and Seed of Joy LLC have filed lawsuits against Artegon’s owner, FB Orlando Acquisition Company LLC, a subsidiary of Lightstone Group. Winter Park lawyer Tucker Byrd represents the first three plaintiffs and says he has more clients that plan to file.

“No explanation was given to them,” Byrd says. “They were just told to get out, and get out fast.”

In the 102-page complaint filed by Sky Zone, the trampoline park alleges it invested $2 million in capital improvements to its 25,000-square-foot unit when it received a notice on Jan. 12, without prior warning, that Artegon had terminated all leases and demanded vendors vacate the premise within two weeks – meaning the number of visitors was likely to drop precipitously.

“[Artegon] attempted to justify its actions by concocting the excuse that the center was still under ‘redevelopment,’ and thus terminable under the leases,” the lawsuit says. “Defendant had ‘redeveloped’ the center years ago, even holding a ‘grand opening,’ to celebrate the repurposing and re-theming of the center, converting it from the failed ‘Festival Bay Mall,’ into the Artegon Marketplace.

“The recent attempt to contradict themselves, all part of a thinly-veiled attempt to absolve itself of lawful obligations under leases with tenants in the center, has interfered with Sky Zone’s lease, adversely impacted its right to quiet enjoyment, and caused damages.”

Photo by Chris Tobar Rodriguez

Byrd says it’s pretty clear Artegon was “looking for any reason to try to empty the mall.”

“Sky Trail, for example, was never told their lease was being terminated and was being allowed to continue, but Artegon locked the front doors,” Byrd says. “How can you possibly tell them, ‘You can continue to use your space,’ but then not let any patrons into the mall?”

Sky Zone also alleges after it entered into its lease with Artegon, several of the larger tenants that the mall had said would move in, like the Radbourne Center skate park or Berghoff’s Oktoberfest brewery, never materialized. By the time Sky Zone opened in 2015, Artegon had sold the Cinemark theater and Bass Pro Shops. The mall “became the constant source of rumors about a potential sale to theme park developers in the Orlando tourist market,” the lawsuit says, prompting Artegon to assure its tenants in September 2016 that it would continue operating.

“The combined pressures of challenges with tenant occupation, the liquidation of outparcels, and the prospects of reaping a substantial sum from selling off the property, impelled [Artegon] to look for and pursue a strategy to terminate leases in the center, even without justification,” the lawsuit says. “Defendant’s actions have cast a pall over the center, interfering with Sky Zone’s right to quiet enjoyment of the premises, by discouraging customers from continuing to use or book for future use the Sky Zone facilities for events, including charity events and children’s birthday parties, many of which have already been scheduled.”

Byrd says some of his clients are still getting notices from Artegon to pay for this month’s rent. Byrd says it may have been cheaper for the mall’s owner to pay off breached contracts and sell to a developer than to keep running the artisan mall.

“I guess you’d risk losing millions if you can still make multiple of millions,” he says. “Maybe they thought we’d give up and go away. But they picked on the wrong group of tenants because we fully intend to protect their interests. Sometimes the underdog does have a chance.”

Meanwhile, smaller vendors like Sina Sutter and Carmen Lopez don’t plan to sue, but are still looking for a space to practice their craft. Lopez misses the little things about Artegon – seeing her friends every morning, getting hugs from clients. She doesn’t regret her two years there.

“A lot of bad stuff happened, but that didn’t interest us,” she says. “When you’re an artist, you see things differently. I loved showing my clients how I make my bags. People went there to find their creativity and we helped them find it.”

This article first appeared in Orlando Weekly  http://www.orlandoweekly.com/orlando/after-the-dramatic-shutdown-of-orlandos-artegon-anti-mall-the-artists-and-vendors-wonder-how-it-all-went-wrong/Content?oid=2692097&utm_source=widget&utm_medium=toc&utm_campaign=rightrail&utm_content=HomeThisWeek

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