Entrepreneur Ben Pundole has surprisingly quit new boutique hotel brand King & Grove after the owners promised to turn him into the next Ian Schrager.
Sources tell us King & Grove owners Joseph Chetrit and Ed Scheetz had promised Pundole “ownership and control of the company, but it never came through.” Pundole resigned by e-mail Thursday and is believed to be going to work with Schrager himself.
Chetrit and Scheetz — whose company owns 12 properties, including the Chelsea Hotel, Montauk hot spot Ruschmeyer’s, the Bossert in Brooklyn and Hotel Williamsburg — are now in talks with Sunset Tower Hotel owner Jeff Klein and his business partner PeterKrulewitch. It’s believed Klein will become an equal partner and hotelier to guide the King & Grove brand.
But a source said: “Ben has been treated pretty unfairly. Ben created Ruschmeyer’s, which has been a wild success, and was the creator of this new hotel brand. He found and hired most of the employees and even found the Williamsburg, which they purchased on his suggestion, and now he’s walking away with nothing. Chetrit and Scheetz are taking his hard work, contacts and hip following.”
Scheetz, the former CEO of Morgans Hotel Group, resigned in 2007 when his 23-year-old girlfriend was found dead from a drug overdose in his bed at the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas.
Our source adds: “Klein becoming an equal partner makes sense. He’s investing a lot of money, he has more experience and a proven track record in hotels, and his style is sophisticated and expensive.”
Industry insiders credit Klein with creating a powerful hotel brand with his Sunset Tower, a fave of stars including Julianne Moore, Johnny Depp, Emma Stone and Jennifer Aniston.
Calls and e-mails to Pundole and Klein were not returned. A rep for King & Grove said the firm would not comment on “private matters between the company and its employees,” adding that no “impropriety” was determined.