�The Toronto office allows HVS International to diversify the range of services that we currently provide our Canadian clients, with the establishment of Hospitality Venture Services Inc., Real Estate Broker, � adds Rushmore.  �In addition to market studies, valuations, and the variety of consulting services we offer, our Toronto team delivers immediate access and extremely strong contacts in hospitality brokerage in Canada.� 

The brokerage component of the Toronto office will be spearheaded by Jon Lantz and Lorenzo Palumbo, who were both formerly brokers with CB Richard Ellis in Toronto.  �Both Jon and Lorenzo are highly experienced and well-connected consultants in the Canadian hotel community,� adds MacDonald.   �Their skills and knowledge of the industry will continue to further enhance HVS� strategic positioning in the Canadian marketplace.�

Betsy MacDonald, MAI, AACI is a managing director of the Vancouver office of HVS International.  MacDonald is a graduate of Cornell University�s School of Hotel Administration, and has over 20 years of hotel feasibility and appraisal experience.  Prior to opening HVS in Vancouver, MacDonald was a director in the United States consulting practice of Pannell Kerr Forster, an international hotel accounting firm.

Jon Lantz, managing director, possesses more than 20 years of experience in the hotel industry, having been involved in consulting, development, and brokerage at different times throughout his career.  In 1994, Lantz founded the hotel brokerage services division of CB Richard Ellis� Lodging Hospitality Group in Toronto, becoming one of the company�s top ten sales producers for the downtown Toronto office in 1998 and 1999.  During the last two years, Lantz has been involved in hotel transactions totaling over C$100 million (US $67 million).  Prior to CB Richard Ellis, Lantz managed the Toronto hotel consulting practice of Pannell Kerr Forster (PKF).

Partnering with Lantz is Lorenzo Palumbo, director, who joined CB Richard Ellis� Lodging Hospitality Group in early 1998.  Palumbo spent the previous 13 years of his career as an investment sales specialist for CB Richard Ellis in Toronto, selling investment and development properties encompassing office, residential, retail, industrial, land, and hotel transactions.  Palumbo was one of the top ten sales producers in his office in 1995, 1997, and 1999.  He was responsible for more than C$100 million in sales from 1996 to 1999.

�We are proud to be an official office of the HVS family,� says Lantz.  �The credibility and reputation of this consulting firm will be of great benefit to our brokerage clients, as we can now offer full-service hotel consulting expertise.  And likewise, we can provide brokerage services to HVS� consulting client base.�

Lantz and Palumbo will also serve as managing directors of the brokerage business in Canada, enhancing the worldwide reach of HVS� London-based Investment Services Division, which performs brokerage services in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

HVS International was established in 1980 to satisfy the growing demand for reliable and well-documented hotel market studies and feasibility reports.  Today, with a staff of more than 100 specialists in 11 offices around the world, HVS offers a truly comprehensive range of hospitality consulting services.

Stephen Rushmore has provided consulting services for thousands of hotels worldwide.  HVS� databases are the industry�s primary source of information regarding hotel sales and compensation.  Rushmore is a leading authority and the prolific author of numerous textbooks and hundreds of articles.

HVS continues to expand its global industry presence through the development of new offices, divisions and alliances.