By: jackie.sauter

Hotelier Stephen Marx says he likes to take some time at the start of each day to gaze at the trees swaying outside of his Greenwich, Conn. home, to take in the expansive blue sky, and to meditate.

“I get up in the morning, I go out on my deck and I sit for 15 minutes and I just try to clear my mind, try to put my troubles away, get myself squared away emotionally, mentally for the day,” he said.

He doesn’t follow any particular spiritual tradition, doesn’t have a mantra or a guru, but Marx says his meditation contributes to his overall happiness and sense of balance.

In addition, Marx works out four times a week, tries to eat healthy foods and is a member of a men’s group that meets periodically to discuss spiritual and emotional matters.

“Sometimes it’s difficult for men to communicate their feelings,” he explained.

All of this is part and parcel of the ideas about wellness and balance espoused by Marx’s brand-new boutique hotel brand, Lifestyle HG, which has announced that it will open its newest franchise at 301 N. Charles St. in Baltimore some time in the next 16-17 months.

Because Lifestyle likes to think of itself as the brand that pushes “serenity” and “wellness,” one might assume that its founder is a new-age San Francisco type who bakes his own granola and has a library full of Eastern philosophy texts.

And yes, Marx did live in San Francisco for a time, but says that he came to his healthy, balanced lifestyle late in life.

“I was a hard-charging career guy, myself and my wife,” he said. When he started out in the boutique sector with Kimpton in 1991, the full-service businessman’s lifestyle was all he knew. “I was only really interested, at that point, in my career,” he added.

Now, he tries to live a bit more like his target customer does.

“I think it’s a lifestyle that I should and would like more,” he said. “It’s life in balance. It’s not about hard drinking; it’s taking care of yourself and your health.”

He still doesn’t own a pair of yoga pants, though.

“Yoga I’ve tried, but I just can’t get myself motivated to do it.”

ROBBIE WHELAN, Business Writer

Photo courtesy lifestylehg.com