BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., March 12, 2007 � Hilton Hotels Corporation recognized
top developers and hotels during its Focused Service Brand Owners� Conference
for Hampton Inn®, Hampton Inn & Suites®, Hilton Garden Inn®
and Homewood Suites by Hilton®, held in La Quinta, Calif., February
26-28, 2007. The conference was attended by more than 1,100 guests, including
owners, brand teams and Hilton Hotels Corporation team members.
Each brand recognized a Developer of the Year, Best Conversion,
Deal of the Year and Outstanding Achievement for the developers who had
the greatest number of project approvals or who developed one or more unique
hotels that helped enhance the brand�s image in 2006. Together, the brands
also recognized a Multi-Brand Developer of the Year who made significant
contributions to the Hilton Family of Hotels with the most number of project
approvals in 2006. To be considered, all hotels in the candidates� Hilton
Family portfolio had to be rated high-quality and in good status, and could
represent a combination of new projects, renovations and conversions.
The recipients of the Developer of the Year
award are:
.
Multi-Brand Award Winner |
Sam Chang
McSam Hotel Group LLC
Two Hampton Inn hotels in Manhattan
Two Hilton Garden Inn hotels in Manhattan
One Doubletree in Manhattan
One Homewood Suites by Hilton in Hartford, Conn.
|
Hampton |
Neel Shah
Imperial Developments, LLC
Duluth, Ga.
Hampton Inn & Suites Scottsboro, Ala.
Hampton Inn Forsyth, Ga.
Hampton Inn & Suites Atlanta I-85 North/
Hamilton Mills, Ga.
|
Hilton Garden Inn |
Aleem M. Kassam
Legacy Hospitality, Inc.
Albuquerque, NM
Hilton Garden Inn Albuquerque Uptown, NM
|
Homewood Suites by Hilton |
Jay Shinn
Magnolia Lodging Development, LLC
Plano, Texas
Homewood Suites by Hilton Plano, Texas and Homewood Suites
by Hilton Frisco, Texas
|
.
Hampton Inn, Hampton Inn & Suites, Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood
Suites by Hilton also presented awards for Deal of the Year and Best Conversion,
which recognizes the tremendous commitment of time and effort many owners
devoted to building a particular brand�s hotel and converting an existing
hotel to the particular brand.
The recipients of the Deal of the Year award
are:
.
Hampton |
Jeffrey Lam
Lam Generation
New York, N.Y.
Hampton Inn Manhattan-SoHo
|
Hilton Garden Inn |
Steve Gupta
1406284 Ontario, Inc.
Vaughan, Ontario, Canada
Hilton Garden Inn Toronto Downtown, Ontario,
Canada
|
Homewood Suites by Hilton |
Mitchell Muroff
Sage Hotel Corporation
Boston, Massachusetts
Homewood Suites by Hilton Boston - Fenway Park, Massachusetts
|
.
The recipients of the Best Conversion award
are:
.
Hampton |
James Karam
Norwood Hospitality, LLC
Fall River, Mass.
Hampton Inn Boston/Norwood
|
Hilton Garden Inn |
Al Patel
Baywood Hotels, Inc.
Greenbelt, MD
Hilton Garden Inn San Antonio Airport, Texas
|
Homewood Suites by Hilton |
Bharat Patel
Church Street Lodging Associates, LLP
Indianapolis, Indiana
Homewood Suites by Hilton Nashville - Downtown, Tennessee
|
.
In addition, each Hilton Family focused-service brand presented an
Outstanding Achievement Award to recognize the due to the developer�s support
of Hilton and the focused-service brands of Hampton, Hilton Garden Inn
and Homewood Suites by Hilton. Each recipient is committed to growing the
respective brands and the Hilton Family by investing in the development
of new hotel projects.
The Outstanding Achievement award winners are:
.
Hampton |
Ronald R. Kendall
Buffalo Lodging Associates
Stoughton, Mass.
Hampton Inn Danbury, Conn.
Hampton Inn- Buffalo-Airport/Galleria Mall, N.Y.
|
Hilton Garden Inn |
Charles A. Mills, III
Sterling F. Webster, III
OBX Resort, LLC
Kitty Hawk, NC
Hilton Garden Inn Outer Banks/Kitty Hawk, NC
Hilton Garden Inn Kent Island, Md.
|
Homewood Suites by Hilton |
James Procaccianti
The Procaccianti Group
Cranston, Rhode Island
Homewood Suites by Hilton Providence - Downtown
|
.
�We are extremely pleased to present Sam Chang of McSam Hotel LLC with
the Multi-Brand Developer of the Year award,� said Bill Fortier, senior
vice president � franchise development, Hilton Hotels Corporation. �The
accolade represents our appreciation of his organization�s exemplary commitment
to excellence in hotel development, from design to post-opening.�
Multi-Brand Developer of the Year
Sam Chang is founder and owner of McSam Hotel LLC and MikeSam Constructions
Corp. With more than twenty years of experience in every facet
of hotel development and renovation in the hotel industry, Chang has significant
expertise in operations, development, construction, renovations and acquisitions.
Chang has been involved in numerous development projects that include hotel,
residential and commercial development in the New York Metropolitan area,
Pennsylvania and Connecticut. McSam Hotel Group LLC is currently
developing two Hilton Garden Inn hotels, two Hampton Inn hotels and one
Doubletree in Manhattan. In Hartford, Conn., the company is developing
a Homewood Suites Hotel.
Hampton Developer of the Year
Hampton Hotels presented the award for Developer of the Year to
Imperial Developments, LLC. Since 1993, the Atlanta-based company
has developed, opened and managed eight Hilton franchises. In 2006 alone
the company was approved for three upcoming Hampton Inn projects-- the
Hampton Inn Scottsboro, Ala., Hampton Inn Forsyth, Ala. and the Hampton
Inn I-85 North, Ga. The company also has two Hilton Garden Inn properties
under construction�the Hilton Garden Inn Atlanta Airport North, Ga. and
the Hilton Garden Inn Columbia Northeast, S.C.
Hilton Garden Inn Developer of the Year
Hilton Garden Inn presented Legacy Hospitality Group, Inc.,
based in Albuquerque, NM with the Developer of the Year award. Aleem Kassam
is the president and CEO of Legacy Hospitality Group, Inc., Faizel Kassam
heads up construction and the company is financially managed by Mohamed
Kassam. The company has grown from a small regional hotel owner/operator
to a progressive and forward thinking hotel development company through
the building and acquisition of properties domestically as well as expanding
and growth internationally. Legacy Hospitality Group, Inc., owns 19 hotels
in four different countries with four properties currently under development.
In addition to its numerous developments of Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood
Suites by Hilton hotels, they look forward to developing additional Hilton
Family hotel brands in the near future. At present, Legacy Hospitality
Group, Inc., is developing a Hilton Garden Inn in Albuquerque, NM, which
is scheduled to open in the 4th quarter of 2007 and will feature 150 rooms
and 4,000 square feet of flexible meeting space.
Homewood Suites by Hilton Developer of the
Year
Magnolia Lodging Development, LLC was recognized as Developer
of the Year by Homewood Suites by Hilton. G. J. Shinn has owned, developed,
and managed hotels since 1982. In 1998, he formed Magnolia Lodging,
LLC with partners Wayne Newton and Matthew Newton to manage his hotels
at a high level of performance. He is well known and respected by
those in the industry, as evidenced by his long standing term on the Homewood
Suites Advisory Council and various other industry leadership positions.
His hotels have always been run in an outstanding fashion, and his many
awards confirm this. In fact, in 2005, The Homewood Suites Plano/Richardson
was ranked Top Hotel in the brand in 2005 and all 3 of his Homewood�s were
ranked in the top 10% of the brand, and thus received special recognition
in the Homewood directory. He is currently involved with partners
in a new development project, a 117 unit Homewood Suites in Frisco, Texas.
Conference Backgrounder
Themed �Unwind & Engage� the conference offered opportunities for
more than 1,100 attendees to learn, network and build relationships through
general sessions, brand-specific meetings, workshops and presentations.
Company Backgrounder
Hilton Hotels Corporation (NYSE:HLT) is the leading global hospitality
company, with more than 2,800 hotels and 495,000 rooms in more than 80
countries, including 150,000 team members worldwide. The company
owns, manages or franchises a hotel portfolio of some of the best known
and highly regarded brands, including Hilton®, Conrad®, Doubletree®,
Embassy Suites Hotels®, Hampton Inn®, Hampton Inn & Suites®,
Hilton Garden Inn®, Hilton Grand Vacations�, Homewood Suites by Hilton®,
Scandic and The Waldorf=Astoria Collection®.
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