Steve Marcus wasn’t planning on a career in the lodging industry when he returned home to Milwaukee in 1962 to help his father with the acquisition of the Pfister. The famed hotel was on the verge of being torn down when Marcus Corp. founder Ben Marcus bought it out of foreclosure.

After the acquisition, Steve led the restoration and expansion project and even served as general manager at the property. The Pfister was the beginning of what is now Marcus Hotels & Resorts and the hotel is still the company’s flagship property. Steve led similar city-center restoration and repositioning projects and grew the hotel division that now has 18 owned or managed properties in its portfolio. He launched the Budgetel Inn brand in 1974 and helped pioneer the limited-service segment.

Lodging Hospitality Editor Ed Watkins presents the Game Changer Award to Steve Marcus, chairman and former CEO of The Marcus Corp.

“What I thought would be a half-day job for six months ended up being a lifetime career,” said Steve, chairman of The Marcus Corp., after receiving Lodging Hospitality’s Game Changer Award at the fourth annual Midwest Lodging Investors Summit in Chicago on Tuesday. The award was created to honor someone who has positively impacted the industry in the Midwest and beyond, someone who has been an innovator and respected leader.

After succeeding with the Pfister and other similarly successful projects like the Marc Plaza in Milwaukee (now the Hilton Milwaukee), Steve had the idea to create a hotel with the quality of rooms at a hotel like the Pfister, but without the additional costs and offerings of amenities like restaurants, meeting space and a pool — things not all guests used.

Budgetel took off and thrived through the 1990s, growing to almost 200 company-owned and franchised properties. It was rebranded as Baymont in 1998 to help compete in a segment suddenly flooded with competitors like Hampton Inn and Fairfield Inn. In 2004, the system was sold to La Quinta and later Blackstone. Baymont now resides with Wyndham Hotel Group and continues to grow.

Steve, who came to the company in 1962 with law and accounting degrees, replaced his father as CEO of the company in 1988, serving for 21 years before his son Greg took over. Marcus Theatres, the other division of the company that celebrated its 75^th anniversary last year, is the sixth largest circuit in the U.S.

“I always tell people I came to the CEO’s attention at an early age,” Steve joked during his acceptance speech at MLIS. “The truth is, not very many companies make it to the third generation. They’re bought out, reinvented as something else or even go bankrupt.”

Steve cited the philosophies his father created after opening a single-screen theater in 1935 as the reason for the company’s growth and continued success: Own your own real estate; never compromise on quality; keep your balance sheet strong; pay attention to details; give your people freedom to make mistakes; never pinch pennies, but watch them closely; never second guess yourself; always ask who when starting a project; and have the same regard for your associates as do you for yourself.

“He didn’t call them philosophies, they were just his way of doing business,” Steve said. “We’ve all taken those to heart and you can see the result in how our companies is positioned today. My name is on this award, but I believe it recognizes the hard work and creativity of all of our people and the success we have achieved together.”