Anthony Pellegrino of ASH NYC | Hotel Peter & Paul in New Orleans | Embracing the Community
Courtesy of ASH NYC
Embracing the Community
Today we’re talking with Anthony Pellegrino, Head of Hotels for ASH NYC, about the Hotel Peter & Paul in New Orleans. In this $20M project, ASH NYC reimagined a campus of buildings once owned by the Catholic Diocese into a 71 room hotel with 3 F&B outlets, an event space and courtyard. Anthony shares some fascinating insight on the project, specifically how his longstanding experience in the hospitality industry came into play, the importance of embracing the New Orleans community, and how he empowers his employees.
“Buildings are for people. We focus on working with our clients as collaborators to define goals and principles for a project that resonates with them, that are about their goals, not our goals as architects.”
Courtesy of ASH NYC
About Anthony Pellegrino
Anthony Pellegrino is the Head of Hotels for ASH NYC, a real estate company whose work stretches from developing hotels and residential buildings, to design, staging, and creating products. They also manage a number of the properties they own. The company is based in Brooklyn and its completed buildings are in Providence, New York, Baltimore, Detroit, and New Orleans.
Courtesy of ASH NYC
Episode Timestamps
3:48 – Tell us about how you crossed paths with the owners of Ash in New York City and how those first conversations went?
5:58 – Could you talk about how you see restaurants and bars and clubs in your hotel shaping the look and feel of the entire development?
9:23 – Hotel Peter and Paul is located in the Marigny district. Talk to us about your first impressions of New Orleans and that neighborhood in particular.
12:25 – Could you talk about some of the design inspiration that you took from the surrounding area?
15:34 – Could you give listeners the experience as you walk in the hotel?
17:30 – Could you talk to us about the process of selecting the color scheme and the materials?
21:38 – You develop and operate hotels. Why do you do that rather than hiring a third party operator or just selling the hotel after you develop it?
25:22 – I'm really curious about the amount of leeway that you give your staff to be able to solve problems the way that they would like to. Could you talk about how you inject creativity into that process?
28:35 – The pay and benefits you mentioned is something that's very important to attract and retain the best talent. So talk to us about how you pay. What are your living wages versus minimum wage, etc.?
31:53 – What COVID protocols have you put into place internally to protect your staff?
35:23 – Have you had any challenges with your staff handling guests that may not have wanted to comply with the rules that you had set out?
38:17 – In terms of employees, what would you say are the skills that you value the most?
Connect with Anthony Pellegrino:
LinkedIn (Anthony Pellegrino)
ASH NYC
Instagram (ASH NYC)
Facebook (ASH NYC)
Donate to the Rhode Island Special Olympics
Courtesy of ASH NYC
About your host:
Atif Qadir is the Founder & CEO of Commonplace, a technology company making it easy for commercial real estate professionals to find and use the $100B of real estate incentives given out every year in the US.
His work has been covered by Technology Review, The Real Deal, Commercial Observer, and Propmodo. He’s also a frequent speaker on the future of buildings and cities on popular industry podcasts and at conferences, including this past year at the Commercial Observer National DEI Conference, Yale AREA Conference, Columbia Real Estate Symposium, Open Data Week NYC and Austin Design Week.
About Commonplace
Commonplace is a founding sponsor of American Building. It is a 100% minority-owned, real estate technology company founded in 2020 to make financing social impact development projects across the US easier. It is funded by venture capital investors Hometeam Ventures, Park West Asset Management, New York Ventures and Shadow Ventures.
About Michael Graves
The world-famous design firm Michael Graves is also a founding sponsor of American Building. Its namesake, the iconoclastic designer Michael Graves, FAIA was a fierce advocate for people-centric design. His work defines a generation of American architecture and includes the Portland Building, the Humana Building and the Denver Public Library. The 1st season of American Building was filmed live at The Warehouse, his historic home in Princeton, New Jersey:
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