At age five, Palisadian Robert Lowe, Jr. began playing sports and participating in youth programming at the Palisades-Malibu YMCA ‘ and he has remained active ever since. In 2005, he joined the board and last month he replaced Jim Buerge as chairperson. ’My parents were always involved in the community when I was growing up, so things that are important to your parents ‘ if you have good parents ‘ generally become important to you,’ said Lowe, noting that his father served on the Palisades-Malibu Y board and as chairman of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Y board. Lowe, who works with his brother and his father at the real estate company Lowe Enterprises in Brentwood, hopes to continue the Y’s mission ‘to strengthen the community through youth development, healthy living and social responsibility.’ The Palisades-Malibu Y conducted a survey earlier this year and found that families are too sedentary, spending hours in front of computers and the television. The survey also showed that the town has a growing population of senior citizens who desire more activities. One of Lowe’s goals is to support the Y in developing programs that will engage these groups. ’We are also going to have to evolve our physical facilities to appropriately provide such programs,’ Lowe said. ‘The facility we have right now on Via de la Paz is weak and not up to what a Y should be in the Palisades.’ The Y leadership is considering constructing a new facility at Simon Meadow, a 3.95-acre property at the corner of Temescal Canyon Road and Sunset Boulevard, which the Y purchased from the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy for about $600,000 in October 2007. The Y is not allowed to build on the site for another six years because of a California Coastal Commission decision and a covenant agreement with the City of Los Angeles. However, Lowe said the group is also exploring the possibility of other locations in town. ’It will be a goal of ours to move that process forward during my two-year term, but the first step is to focus on the immediate needs of Simon Meadow,’ said Lowe, noting that the Y intends to continue to landscape the property, so that it looks consistent with the neighboring Temescal Gateway Park. This fall, the Y will work with local landscape designer David Card to beautify the front corner of the property and improve the adjacent walkways on Sunset and into Temescal. Lowe will juggle leading the Y through these changes while working full-time as co-president of Lowe Enterprises and CEO of its hospitality group, which manages, develops and invests in hotels and resorts. His brother, Michael, also a Palisades resident, is co-president of Lowe Enterprises and chief investment officer. Lowe Enterprises manages 40 three- to five-star hotels in the United States with 8,000 employees. In Southern California, Lowe oversees management of Terranea in Rancho Palos Verdes, L’Auberge in Del Mar, Estancia in La Jolla and Paradise Point Resort & Spa in Mission Bay/Pacific Beach. Lowe’s father inspired him to pursue a career in real estate. Robert, Sr. (CEO of today’s company) founded Lowe Enterprises in 1972, initially focusing on hospitality. Lowe, Jr. fondly remembers going on vacations to various hotels and resorts with his dad and mom, Beth. When it came time for college, Lowe decided to study economics at Stanford, where he met his wife, Suzanne, his freshman year. Married for 19 years, they have three children: Robbie, 14, Henry, 11, and Tatum, 4. After graduation, he moved to Boston for a couple of years and worked for a real estate company. He then came back to California and enrolled at UCLA to earn his master’s degree in business. ‘In 1992, when I was getting ready to graduate, I started talking to my father about coming to work for his company, and we decided it would be the right thing to do,’ Lowe said. ‘I started at the bottom, and I have been working my way up steadily.’ In addition to hospitality, Lowe Enterprises also has an investors group that assists clients with major investments and a real estate group that manages the company’s commercial and residential acquisition, development and management activities. Headquartered in Los Angeles, Lowe Enterprises has regional offices in Denver, Washington, D.C., San Diego, San Mateo and Fullerton. For the hospitality group, ‘we employ a strategy that is the opposite of the traditional brand, so we focus primarily on independent hotels, and we look at every property as something unique,’ Lowe explained. Two years ago, Lowe Enterprises completed and opened its own development, Terranea, a destination resort with 550 rooms on 100 acres, the former Marineland site in Palos Verdes. ’We felt that a lot of the luxury hotels on the coast weren’t really uniquely Southern Californian; they were all a little too formal, and we wanted to create something that was really the epitome of the Southern California lifestyle,’ Lowe said, noting that they wanted a casual, yet sophisticated atmosphere. The Lowes also wanted guests to have fun during their stay, so the hotel features three ocean-view pools and a nine-hole three-par golf course. Guests and locals can dine at one of eight restaurants. At Nelson’s, for example, patrons can relax on the outdoor patio while gazing at Point Vicente Lighthouse and Catalina Island. ‘It’s super casual and people can come in their flip-flops and locals can bring their dogs,’ Lowe said. The menu includes tacos, seared ahi sandwiches and chipotle shrimp. Guests can also enjoy an elegant dining experience at Mar’sel, where award-winning Chef Michael Fiorelli uses herbs and vegetables from the garden outside the restaurant for his seasonally rotating menu, which includes such entrees as duck breast, lamb sirloin, prime ribeye and halibut. In 2008, Lowe Enterprises also renovated the L’Auberge, a 120-room hotel in the middle of seaside Del Mar. ’We used a residential architect because we wanted a beach-house feel,’ Lowe said. ‘We took it down to the studs and completely redeveloped it.’ The resort features a pool overlooking the Pacific with private cabanas and a restaurant, Kitchen 1540, serving entrees such as white rabbit and barbequed pigtails. Looking toward the future, Lowe says the company is in active growth mode. ’This year, we have purchased two hotels [in Washington, D.C. and Seattle] and are working on a third, and we have a third-party management contract on a fourth. We believe it is a good time right now to be expanding. Prices are lower now and there are a number of properties that are changing ownership as a result of the recession.’ On the hotel management side, there are also a lot of owners who are looking to change managers, Lowe noted. Lowe travels a lot for work, but he enjoys it: ‘The reward part is fun because you get to go to your properties and watch your guests enjoying themselves, and that is satisfying.’
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
