In this expanded capacity, Tom is responsible for the overall strategic and operational direction and growth of the company and of the collection of unique hotels and restaurants it operates. 

�All of the people important to our enterprise � our guests, our investors, our owners, and our employees � are looking to continue the remarkable saga of the Kimpton Group,� said Tom LaTour.  �I am proud to undertake the challenge.  We deeply miss Bill Kimpton and we will feel his loss for a long time, but we are committed to continuing the high level of service and individual personal treatment our guests have come to know and expect, and we are committed to delivering the superior returns our investors have come to enjoy � as we continue our growth across the country.� 

Tom has been with the Kimpton Group for 18 years and has been its chief executive officer for half that time.  He had an extensive career in the hotel and food industry prior to joining Kimpton Group, commencing with his university degree in that field 35 years ago. 

�Tom has long held the operational reins of the company and has taken on more of the vision for overseeing strategic growth in recent years,� said Charles Brindell, Jr. of Dallas Texas, managing director of Crow Holdings, the investment office of the Tramell Crow family and a director of the Kimpton Group since early 1998.  �I can not think of a better person than Tom to continue to lead the growth of the Kimpton Group in new markets all across the country and we support him and the company wholeheartedly in this endeavor.� 

Kimpton Group transforms older, often historic, buildings into charming European-style accommodations.  Since 1981, Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, has acquired and significantly renovated a number of unique properties, and currently operates 34 hotels and 28 restaurants all across the country and in Canada. 

Kimpton Group�s combination of boutique, four-star hotels and high-end destination restaurants has proven a great success in a number of major cities throughout the country.  These popular pairings include the acclaimed Restaurant Sazerac with the fashionable Hotel Monaco Seattle, and the critic�s choice Fifth Floor Restaurant with the incredibly chic Hotel Palomar, San Francisco. 

Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group�s New Development Projects 

Kimpton Group has additional openings scheduled for New Orleans, Washington D.C., San Francisco, and the Silicon Valley.  

In the first three of these locations, Kimpton Group will convert historic buildings into luxury hotels.  However, in Silicon Valley, Kimpton is undertaking a new, ground up boutique hotel and restaurant development at the crossroads of high tech activity.  The 224-room Hotel Cypress will open in Cupertino, Calif. in Summer 2002, literally rubbing elbows with such high-powered neighbors as Sun Microsystems, Apple Computer, Compaq Computer, Intel, Hewlett Packard and Portal Software. 

Meanwhile, in New Orleans, along the route of the annual Mardi Gras parade, on the St. Charles Avenue of street car fame, the 251-room Hotel Monaco New Orleans and Restaurant Bleu will open this summer in a stunning transformation of the vintage 1926 Masonic Temple and Office Building.  The Hotel�s colors and textures will be a delight for the senses. 

Currently underway in our nation�s capital, the 182-room Hotel Monaco Washington D.C. will emerge in early 2002 from Kimpton�s conversion of the historically important Tariff Building and General Post Office (built in 1839) across the street from the National Portrait Gallery.  The irreplaceable marble clad building will house an intimate hotel of world class caliber. 

And out west, virtually in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge, Kimpton Group is converting an historic National Park Service-owned building into a 252-room hotel within the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park at Fisherman�s Wharf, to open in Summer 2002.  

Kimpton Group recently took over the operation of the Aspen Club Lodge in Aspen, Colo. on behalf of an affiliate of Northridge Capital, the property�s new owners, and is consulting with the new owners now on an appropriate repositioning program.  

And, in Washington D.C., Kimpton Group is working with LaSalle Hotel Properties on an exciting $30 million renovation and repositioning program to transform and pump new life into a portfolio of four older boutique hotels which LaSalle recently acquired.  The portfolio repositioning affords a wonderful opportunity to create unique, signature identities for each of the hotels while providing each of them the benefits of synergy from the group.