Tisches

"For Larry, the destruction of Laurel-in-the-Pines was no cause for tears. Indeed, one of his strengths as a businessman was emotional de- tachment from investments. “You just don’t fall in love with your as- sets,” son Andrew said. That detachment allowed the Tisches to build equity fast. They traded hotel properties much the way a Wall Street money manager works the stock market. They bought or leased or built. They added value. They sold them. Sometimes they leased them back. “By the late 1960s, we had 13 hotels,” Andrew noted. In 1994, “we still have 13 hotels, though not all the same hotels. We leased them, sold back leases, managed them. Each deal has been a profitable deal unto itself. We never had to be somewhere. Even in the hotel business, we’ve just been trading assets.”"

"Word of repeated successes travels fast within any industry. The hotel business is no exception. The Tisches already were building a reputation as highly effective managers with deep pockets. It made them automatic targets for pitches by owners of poorly performing ho- tels who wanted to either sell or lease them to someone who could do a better job operating them and would improve their resale value. The"