When Geolo Capital bought a controlling interest in San Francisco-based Joie de Vivre Hospitality this summer, the plan was for immediate expansion outside of California.

So of course the first major acquisition was the 250-room Custom Hotel in Los Angeles. But Chip Conley, the founder and former CEO and now chief creative officer, says more acquisitions are coming and they’ll be outside his home state.

He says JdV and Geolo are targeting markets in Denver and west, including Hawaii, and in Manhattan and other gateway cities like Miami.

“We’re looking here right now,” said Conley during an interview after his keynote address at the Lifestyle/Boutique Hotel Development Conference at the Fontainebleau in Miami last month. “Miami is a good market; there are so many boutique hotels here. We’re a big believer in the cluster approach. Rather than dots on the map across the country, we’d rather have three in one place.”

Conley said they are closing in on two potential acquisitions, and they’re in two different markets, but “when we do make a bet, we’ll make a bigger bet in that market,” he said. He added news of those would be coming “sooner than later” and could include a small portfolio rather than just a single property purchase.

The focus will continue to be boutique hotels, similar to the rest of the 34 California properties JdV owns and operates. His definition of a boutique property—which he outlined to an audience of hotel owners, operators and developers at the conference hosted by Lodging Hospitality—is a hotel smaller than the chain properties in its market, one that has a point of view and one locals fall in love with.

“A boutique hotel that gets it right is a reflection of its neighborhood and city,” he explained.

Expansion Plans
Conley also discussed his new role with the company he founded in 1987 when he opened the Phoenix Hotel in San Francisco. After two decades of passing on opportunities outside California, Conley last year revealed he was looking for a capital partner to fuel expansion outside his home base, and this year that become a reality with the investment from Geolo Capital and its founding partner and director, John Pritzker.

Geolo has a $150 million equity fund aimed at acquiring $300 to $500 million in hospitality assets to grow JdV’s portfolio to more than 50 owned and operated properties. Currently, JdV owns approximately 40 percent of the portfolio, Geolo owns two and the rest are third-party managed.

“We were outgrowing our market and needed to grow nationally,” Conley said during his speech, adding in the interview afterward that JdV didn’t have deep enough pockets. “Well, we did to survive, but not enough to grow the company.”

Oddly, despite having mutual friends and working in the same city, Conley and Pritzker didn’t know each other. Geolo was one of the final suitors Conley met with before deciding JdV’s future.

“Geolo was looking for a platform and John really liked our unique management approach and how we create hotels,” Conley said. In 2009, Geolo acquired the 139-room Carmel Valley Ranch, which JdV now manages and offers in its new luxury portfolio.

Getting Creative
In September, Gary Beasley, a partner with Geolo, became CEO of JdV and Conley became executive chairman and chief creative officer, a title perfectly suited for the unique style of the second largest boutique hotelier in the country.

In his new role, Conley will be involved in acquisitions, but not in the negotiation and financing side of deals, but rather in helping locate and then planning the concepts and repositioning strategies of the new properties.

Conley’s hotels are all modeled after magazines that define the properties’ characteristics and the aspirations of its target audience. Five adjectives are then chosen to describe the essence of the magazine and then define the hotel’s identity, décor and services.

Rolling Stone, for example, was the model for the Phoenix, a favorite among musicians, while Wired was the inspiration for Hotel Avante, the Silicon Valley choice of Google employees.

How challenging will it be for Conley to step back, at least a little, in the day-to-day operations of the company he started?

“It’s OK,” he said. “Normally an entrepreneur stepping away becomes like a psycho killer, but I’ve got this other passion and I’m able to funnel a lot of my energy into something else.

Conley is currently writing two more books on the heels of the best-seller success of his last, Peak. The book—subtitled “How Great Companies Get Their Mojo From Maslow”—details Conley’s unique approach to leadership and business founded in the theories of psychologist Abraham Maslow. He’s also a popular corporate speaker, recently cited by MeetingsNet as one of the most in demand this year.

“Had we not had this recession, I would still be here,” Conley said of the timing of his transition. “I was spending more and more time writing and speaking. The recession maybe accelerated what was meant to happen.”