Lotte takes over the New York Palace, launching global luxury chain

What do you do with $83 billion of annual revenue? If you’re Song Yong-dok, president and CEO of Lotte Hotels & Resorts, South Korea's largest hotel company, you purchase Midtown Manhattan’s 133-year-old New York Palace hotel, made famous in the TV show Gossip Girl. After all, what’s a mere $805 million?

Rechristened the Lotte New York Palace, the hotel relaunched this week (with the help of actress and model Brooke Shields) after a $140 million renovation, with all the silk, wood paneling, Italian marble, artwork, designer lighting that you can imagine, not to mention a sumptuous grand staircase that oozes down like hot chocolate and caramel fudge into the lobby.

More significant than the over-the-top amenities, however, is that the hotel is the first effort by Lotte Hotels & Resorts, to gain a solid foothold in the United States and the global market. The plan is to buy or build more than 30 branches in the U.S. and Europe by 2018. “We aim to become truly a global leader,” Song told Forbes. For other major global hotel chains Hilton, Marriott, and Accor, this may cause some concern.

Prestige has been coming in fast and furious as well this year. Lotte Hotel Moscow was named best hotel in Russia by Conde Nast Traveller, but that’s little compared to what it should earn when President Barack Obama arrives at the New York Palace this month to stay during the UN General Assembly, a break from the presidential tradition to stay in the Waldorf-Astoria, now owned by a Chinese Anbang Insurance Group.