Aug. 11--A group of former Rosewood Hotels executives has been hired to run the super-luxury St. Regis hotel chain, which will now be based in Dallas. 

Atef Mankarios, former chief executive of Dallas' Rosewood, will become the president of St. Regis. He and a team of five executives were hired by New York-based Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. to take the helm of its international St. Regis brand. 

St. Regis has nine hotels -- in New York, Rome, Los Angeles, Beijing, Shanghai, Houston, Southern California, Washington, D.C., and Aspen, Colo. -- with new locations under construction in San Francisco and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 

Mr. Mankarios said St. Regis will begin work immediately to switch about 10 top-quality Starwood hotels to the brand. Hotels that will be converted to St. Regis properties include the Gritti Palace in Venice, Italy, the Pitrizza resort in Sardinia, Italy, and the Imperial in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

"We anticipate having 20 St. Regis hotels by the end of next year," Mr. Mankarios said. "We also think there will be great opportunities to acquire or develop more hotels." 

One of those probably will be in Dallas. 

"I definitely would love to have a five-star St. Regis flagship in Dallas," Mr. Mankarios said. "I will do everything I can to do that." 

Starwood Hotels chairman Barry Sternlicht said in a prepared statement that he hired Mr. Mankarios to make St. Regis one of the world's top high-end hotel chains. 

"There is perhaps no one in the world as uniquely qualified to run a global luxury hotel brand as Atef," Mr. Sternlicht said. "The addition of Atef and his entire team in one quick move is quite a coup, and will help us realize our vision to expand this great brand on a global basis in an aggressive time frame." 

For almost 10 years, Mr. Mankarios and several of his executives ran Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, overseeing an international expansion of the luxury lodging company from its base at the Mansion on Turtle Creek. 

While at Rosewood, Mr. Mankarios oversaw the development of some of that chain's most acclaimed properties, including Lanesborough in London, Las Ventanas al Paraiso in Los Cabos, Mexico, and the Palazzo Arzaga in Verona, Italy. 

After a large stake in the company was sold in 1998, Mr. Mankarios and his team left to set up a small hotel management company, Foresthills Hotels & Resorts. 

The other five executives hired by St. Regis worked with Mr. Mankarios at Foresthills and Rosewood. They are Andy Anderson, vice president of sales; Scott Blair, vice president of finance; George Fong, vice president of engineering and construction; Michael Matthews, vice president of marketing; and Kenyon Price, director of operations. 

Despite the uncertain economy, Mr. Mankarios said the super-luxury end of the hotel industry continues to prosper and expand. 

"When the economy stalls a little bit, the people most affected are in the middle segment of the market," he said. "The top-end movers and shakers continue to travel and utilize the high-end hotels." 

Starwood is one of the world's biggest hospitality companies, with 725 hotels in 80 countries. Along with St. Regis, Starwood's other major brands include Westin and Sheraton. 

-----To see more of The Dallas Morning News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dallasnews.com/ 

(c) 2001, The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.