Chic, Urban, Intimate
By Jan Wilson
 
 
Stylish, hip and affordable are adjectives that are more likely to describe clothing or furniture than hotel accommodations in the heart of the world’s greatest city. “Until now, the choice was clear—if you wanted to stay in Manhattan but were looking for moderately priced accommodations, you’d have to settle for an inconvenient location and a dowdy, uninteresting room,” says hotelier Hank Freid, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Impulsive Group. Freid has spent the past 17 years building a portfolio of hotel properties that are upmarket and centrally located, yet cost travelers a mere fraction of what they would typically expect to pay. With various locations in Manhattan and plans underway to extend the concepts nationally, Impulsive Group is poised to become the brand name for the discerning traveler who wants to stay in an upscale, vibrant, welcoming, sophisticated environment and, after paying the hotel bill, still have money left over to enjoy all that a city has to offer.
 
AN UNLIKELY HOTELIER
property was renovated.” When his partners didn’t see it that way, he bought out their interests over time, converting the property to an affordable hotel.
“Impulsive Group is ahead of the curve in delivering what the client wants and expects out of a New York City hotel now. The addition of Brandon Freid to the team has further kept their pulse on the marketplace.” Michael Forrest, Senior Associate, Marcus & Millichap
Freid got his start in the hotel business in the late 1970s when he was introduced to some investors who owned a rooming house in upper Manhattan. “Before this venture I was working as a designer for a shirt manufacturer,” he says. “This group needed my time and my energy, and I had definite ideas about how the property could be managed.” At the time, the property was not for the faint of heart. “This was a drug infested building, and the surrounding area wasn’t much better,” he recalls. “However, its location, close to Columbia University, still meant that it could be attractive to a segment of the student population, if the