Sterling Hotels was a $10 billion empire.
Not the biggest in hospitality—Marriott and Hilton still dominated by sheer scale—but Sterling had carved out something more valuable than size: prestige. Their chain of boutique hotels sat at the intersection of luxury and exclusivity, the kind of properties where CEOs held discreet meetings and celebrities stayed when they wanted privacy more than Instagram backdrops.
Fifty-three properties across North America alone. Each one meticulously curated, each one printing money.
Edward Sterling had built this empire over eighteen years, starting with a single boutique hotel in Boston funded by his inheritance from the Sterling patriarch. While his older siblings had gone into banking and real estate development, Edward had seen opportunity in the hospitality sector's shift toward experiential luxury.
He'd been right.
