inset1_SMILEY PETE-21C-Sarah Jane Sanders c2015-87
Lexington's 21c opened in 2016.
International hotel operator AccorHotels has signed an agreement to acquire a majority ownership of 21c Museum Hotels. The purchase price for the 85 percent stake is $51 million, which includes a potential earn out payment. No real estate is included in the acquisition, and 21c’s corporate headquarters will remain in Louisville. Both parties expect to complete the transaction during the third quarter of 2018.
Founded in 2006 in Louisville by philanthropists and contemporary art collectors Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson, each 21c property combines a boutique hotel with a contemporary art museum, and is paired with a chef-driven restaurant. It’s a unique concept that has helped the brand grow to include 11 properties that are currently either in operation or under development, including its downtown Lexington location, which opened in February 2016. The first 21c Museum Hotel opened in a series of renovated 19th-century tobacco and bourbon warehouses in Louisville’s downtown arts and theater district in 2006.
Brown and Wilson will retain a 15 percent stake in the company, and will remain closely involved in providing creative guidance and support for the brand and its art collection which, all together, is one of the largest contemporary art museums in the United States and North America’s only collecting museum dedicated solely to art of the 21st century. 21c Museum Hotels will continue to be led by President and CEO Craig Greenberg.
Each 21c property features a chef-driven restaurant, including Lockbox at 21c's Lexington location, helmed by Jonathan Searle.
In addition to its Lexington and Louisville locations, the company also operates properties in Bentonville, Arkansas; Cincinnati; Durham, North Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri; Nashville and Oklahoma City. Three more properties are currently in development in Miami, Chicago and Des Moines, Iowa.
21c Museum Hotels will join AccorHotels’ MGallery collection of boutique hotels, which includes Hotel Molitor Paris, INK Hotel Amsterdam and Harbour Rocks Hotel Sydney. The 21c acquisition marks AccorHotels’ first foray of its MGallery brand into the North American market.
“AccorHotels is one of the world’s leading hotel operators and will be a perfect partner and catalyst for 21c’s continued growth,” Wilson, 21c’s co-founder, said in a release announcing the sale. “We are confident that the unique spirit of 21c will not only be preserved, but will flourish within the MGallery collection of boutique hotels. 21c will continue to bring the work of today’s most dynamic and engaging contemporary artists to the public, and this partnership will be a tremendous boost for 21c’s continued development in North America and abroad. We are extremely excited to see what the future holds.”
The multi-venue 21c Museum, which is spread across seven venues, is North America’s only collecting museum dedicated solely to 21st-century art.