Hotel brokers mark 50 years

Real Estate Weekly, Feb 1, 1995

The walls of Ed Lewis' office on East 57th Street contain a rather impressive assortment of framed awards, photographs, and acknowledgements from peers. For example, there's a formal invitation from Mayor Fiorella LaGuardia inviting Lewis to meet King George VI and Queen Elizabeth upon their arrival in New York on June 10, 1939; there's a 1961 photograph featuring Lewis and Conrad Hilton, who were good professional friends; a lovely personal note from Anwar El Sadat written in 1977 thanks Lewis for a gift of rare tobacco; and a letter written in 1983 from Howard P. James, Chairman and CEO of the Sheraton Corporation, thanks Lewis for his role in selling the New York Sheraton to VMS Realty.

It's obvious that there's a lot of history in that office. In fact, Brener & Lewis, one of the world's oldest and most recognized hotel brokerage firms, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and its president, Ed Lewis, is still an active player in the hospitality marketplace.

The company has the distinction of having had sales in every state in the union, including Hawaii and Alaska, as well as international sales in Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and the United Kingdom.

Through the years, Brener & Lewis has sold some of New York's most prestigious hotels including: The Delmonico (4 times); the Dorset; the Drake (2 times); the McAlpin; the Elysee (2 times); the St. Regis (5 times); the Plaza, and the Westbury.

Ed Lewis, whose partner Dan Brener passed away 23 years ago, is the networking king of the hotel industry. "Having been in the business for so long, I pretty much know who's going to be interested in what," said Lewis. "As a boutique, our focus is straight brokerage, we rarely do mortgage work, and of course we have a great deal of repeat business in that we're often called upon to sell the same hotel several times."

The firm's expertise is in representing single owner/sellers, as opposed to corporate owners such as Hyatt, Marriott, etc., who own and operate national chains of hotels.

Brener & Lewis' salesmen Ted Handerek, Roy Weintraub, and John Shtino have been with the firm for over 15 years. Handerek works the closest to Lewis on the hotel buy and sell side. Currently in the works are the following sales, among others; a 300-room major New York hotel; a 500-room four-star beachfront resort in Florida; a small chain of national limited service hotels; and an off-shore deluxe casino resort.

Evelyn August, who has been Lewis' secretary for 45 years, oversees the office; a devoted Brenerian, she's never worked anywhere else.

Brener & Lewis do virtually no advertising or direct marketing. "I don't believe in alerting every conceivable buyer about a hotel sale," remarks Lewis. "My method of marketing is targeted and precise; I quietly scan my list of contacts and approach them one at a time. There are no confidentiality agreements and, believe it or not, many of our deals are still transacted with a handshake. It's old-fashioned, but that's the way I've always done business."

His method is sound and produces results. Since its inception in 1945, the firm has bought and sold over 250 hotels throughout the US and abroad. In the 50s and 60s, Brener & Lewis averaged one hotel sale per week. His most recent New York hotel deal was to negotiate the lease on the Elysee, at 50 East 54th Street. Not surprisingly, 25 years ago Lewis sold the Elysee to Messrs. M. Quain and D. Phillips and in 1993 he was called upon again to re-negotiate the lease for Quain's son, Leon.

Because of its history and reputation, many of the institutions, Prudential, Sigma, Citicorp, First Chicago, to name a few, offer Lewis a five to six week lead-in time to sell a property before calling for RFP's from the larger hotel brokers.

It's Lewis' goal to stay small, stay connected and stay active - both physically and professionally. Not unlike George Burns, Lewis, a die-hard cigar smoker, seems to realize that staying busy and on the forefront of the cyclical hotel industry is a way to stay young as well. Brener & Lewis, quite comfortable and secure in its niche, is still very much an active competitor in today's ever more buoyant hotel marketplace.