Montage's Herthel on new resorts in New Jersey, beyond

Editor’s note: Montage International on Monday announced it has received a strategic investment from Goldman Sachs Asset Management, BlackRock, Inc. and affiliate funds of Luxor Capital Group, which assisted with the transaction. The deal allows Montage to accelerate its next growth stage while giving its minority shareholder, Austin, Texas-based Ohana Real Estate Investors, an exit.

This story first appeared on Travel Weekly

Luxury hospitality group Montage International is in the midst of an ambitious expansion plan, with numerous projects in the pipeline across both its Montage Hotels & Resorts and Pendry Hotels & Resorts brands. Most recently, the company debuted the Pendry Washington DC – The Wharf and the Pendry Newport Beach in California in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

Hotels editor Christina Jelski spoke with Jason Herthel, president and COO of Montage International, about both brands and the company's next phase of growth.

Christina Jelski: What’s the key differentiator between the Montage and Pendry concepts?

Jason Herthel: Montage is a little bit more of that traditional, five-star, ultraluxury hotel. There’s always going to be a customer who’s looking for that, and our Montage product will always resonate with them. And we’ve created such a high-quality, ultraluxury portfolio of Montages that the selectivity that goes into creating one is very high. We’re very restrictive about where we put another Montage.

But we designed Pendry to be a little more flexible. It’s more easily put into conversions, as opposed to ground-up development, so you see us going to Chicago and converting or Newport Beach and converting to create a Pendry. There’s just more markets where we can put a Pendry. It’s interesting, 2023 marked the first time that we had an even number of Montages and Pendrys, and now that the Pendry Newport Beach is open, for the first time we actually have more Pendrys than Montages. So, we have eight Pendrys, and the Pendry Natirar will be the ninth.

Jelski: When is the Pendry Natirar opening, and where is that project located?

Herthel: We’ll be opening the Pendry Natirar, which is less than an hour outside of New York City, in late spring in Somerset County, New Jersey. I think people have never really thought of New Jersey as a high-end resort destination. So, there’s sort of a low hurdle to clear in order to wow people, but when people get out to see the property, they’re definitely wowed. It’s a mansion a little over 100 years old that we’re converting into a resort. For the last 10 years or so, there’s been a destination restaurant there and a 12-acre working farm plus a ballroom. But it’s always been missing room product, it’s always been missing the spa product. It’s never been a full-fledged resort. So, that’s all about to be fixed with the debut of the Pendry Natirar. We’ll have 68 guestrooms, and there’ll be 24 residences.

Jelski: You’re also making inroads into the Caribbean, with projects like the Montage Cay in the Bahamas’ Abaco Islands and a Pendry Barbados in the works. What’s the latest on those fronts?

Herthel: Barbados is a wonderfully robust market from a hospitality standpoint, and it’s a sophisticated market. But interestingly, there hasn’t really been a new luxury hotel to open there in a very long time, so we definitely are shaking it up. It’s newsworthy that we’re opening a 70- to 80-room luxury resort. And it’s a bit of a modern design approach that we’re taking, which also is new. A lot of the historical hotels that have been there are sort of more plantation-style and stereotypical of the Caribbean. This is a bit more contemporary. And there will be 46 residences, a marina, a beautiful destination spa.

And in the Bahamas, it’s one island, one resort. We’re the only thing on the island. There’s this sense of privacy, intimacy. It’s a small island where it feels secluded, but there will be a destination spa, restaurants, watersports galore, fishing, yachting. There’s so much to do there, and it’s so accessible, particularly to the East Coast. We love the idea that there’s a sense of the Maldives or Fiji, Tahiti at Montage Cay, without the long flight.