The manager of the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai, Karambir Singh Kang, had no idea that a fraught conversation with his wife Niti in the early hours of November 27 last year would be the couple’s last.
Niti was barricaded with their sons Uday, 14, and Samar, 5, in the bathroom of the family’s sixth-floor suite at the hotel in Mumbai as terrorists rampaged through its corridors with guns and grenades.
Kang was pinned down under heavy fire in the ornate ground floor lobby as he tried to evacuate panic-stricken guests and keep in touch with his family by phone.
“I asked them to stay in the room as it was the safest place for them. Had they stepped out, they would have been shot at. We didn’t know that [the terrorists] would set the rooms on fire deliberately,” he said.
Kang still finds it hard to talk about their final call. “It was around 3am when I last spoke to my wife,” he said. “When she told me that there was smoke coming from the doors, I asked her to use wet towels to block it and said I would come to get her.
“I could not reach them due to smoke, fire, gunshots and grenade explosions all around and the commandos had not arrived by then. The fire brigade didn’t have their orders to come in and the terrorists were firing at them.”
As he realised that there was nobody to help rescue his family, Kang was unable even to say a few words of comfort to his young sons.
“They were too terrified,” he said, but he recalls that his wife was “remarkably calm, very brave until the very end, not scared although she knew what was coming. She was an extraordinary woman”.
He added: “I was sure they would survive. When I called again after five minutes, her phone just rang. I knew something was wrong, yet I was hoping against hope she would have been able to get out. But it was not to be.”
He telephoned his mother, Kamaljit Kaur, in Bahrain, whose advice was simple. “Go save the others,” she said. It gave him the courage to carry on. “I had to stay as long as I could to save as many guests as possible.”
Kang remained at his post until the final gunman was killed by commandos more than 50 hours later.
The actions of Kang, his staff and the security forces saved about 700 lives, but his own life would be changed for ever.
Three days after the siege began, the bodies of Niti, Uday and Samar were recovered from their gutted room. Niti was found cradling one son with the other nestled beside her.
The family had been due to move to a new home in January. Instead, Kang buried his wife and sons and returned to his parents’ farmhouse in Punjab to grieve.
He did not linger long. Duty called and he returned within days to start restoring the 105-year-old building.
Renovating the hotel helped him to start rebuilding his own life. “I needed direction and purpose and right now that’s to rebuild the Taj and make it the finest hotel in the world,” he said.
Since it officially reopened in December, Kang has led his team of 542 revamping the hotel. It will be fully reopened next summer. “I decided to stay on and rebuild the hotel and it is important to see that work through,” he said. “They call this hotel the Grand Dame and she is getting a makeover. This is a signal that no matter what happens, we will emerge stronger than before.”
Kang’s decision to stay has bolstered morale. Not one member of staff resigned after the attack, despite mourning their colleagues among the 31 guests and staff who perished inside the hotel.
Following the assault, staff were praised for their coolness under fire and their willingness to put guests’ lives before their own. Warren Siqueira, a duty manager, saved more than 200 by barricading guests into a banquet room. For nine hours Siqueira and his colleagues served refreshments as gunfire and bombs shook the room.
In one attempt to escape, he narrowly avoided being killed when the terrorists opened fire. A maintenance man fell wounded at his feet and Siqueira helped to stem the blood as the man’s life ebbed away.
Despite the trauma, Siqueira said he had not hesitated for a moment about returning to work. “It was a wonderful feeling to come back,” he said.
Kang said the events had brought his staff together. In a city used to natural catastrophes, desperate poverty and terrorist attacks, there is a resilience that leaves little room for self-pity.
At the Leopold cafe, where the terrorists launched their brutal assault, regular customers sit again at tables where a year ago many received horrific injuries. Two waiters died that night, but the surviving eight returned to work between pock-marked walls that have been left as a reminder that 10 people died there.
The Taj hotel’s owners, the Tata family, set up a trust to help all the victims, from their own staff to the families of 52 people killed at the main railway station, many of whom came from the city’s slums. Financial support, education and jobs have been offered to the injured and to families that lost their main breadwinners.
As the trial of Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist, draws to a close, many of Mumbai’s inhabitants share Kang’s view that “what has been done cannot be undone”, choosing to look to the future rather than dwell on three nights of terror.
In the Taj’s newly renovated palm lounge, Kang, 41, recalled how he had fallen in love with Niti when they met in Delhi more than 15 years ago as hotel management trainees.
“She was vivacious, full of life, friendly and an amazing mother and wife,” he said, before his voice faded and he looked away. After a short pause he ventured: “Life is in your hands, how you want to cope with it, whether you spiral down or keep going.
“Had I wanted to turn and run when the firing and grenades started, then I could have done that. But it’s like being the captain of the ship and the captain is always the last one to leave.”
Source:http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6926973.ece
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Unemployment Rate Inches Up in October
San Diego’s unemployment rate rose to 10.5 percent in October, up from September’s revised rate of 10.4 percent, and the prior year’s October rate of 6.7 percent, according to a Nov. 20 report from the state Employment Development Department.
San Diego’s jobless rate continued to fall below the state’s rate in October of 12.3 percent but above the national rate for the same month of 9.5 percent.
During the prior month, the San Diego area lost about 8,100 nonfarm jobs, to bring the net job loss for the 10 months to 52,200, according to the EDD.
The biggest losses were incurred in the area’s hotel and tourism industry, which shed 3,600 jobs during the months the summer season concluded.
Two other segments — construction as well as trade, transportation and utilities (which includes retail trade) shrunk by 700 jobs each, the report found.
On the plus side, professional and business services increased by 2,000 jobs, with the largest gain found in the professional, scientific and technical subcategory, which jumped by about 900 jobs.
The government sector, which includes teachers and other workers at school districts, had the largest overall increase for the month, gaining by 9,300. About 5,400 of that number came from education, while the remainder was attributed to mainly state and other government related jobs.
Over the full year, the categories that have sustained the greatest job losses are trade, transportation and utilities, down 11,600; professional and business services, down 10,800; construction, down 9,700; leisure and hospitality, down 8,600; and manufacturing, down 8,000.
— Mike Allen
Source:http://www.sdbj.com/industry_article.asp?aID=142654
San Diego’s jobless rate continued to fall below the state’s rate in October of 12.3 percent but above the national rate for the same month of 9.5 percent.
During the prior month, the San Diego area lost about 8,100 nonfarm jobs, to bring the net job loss for the 10 months to 52,200, according to the EDD.
The biggest losses were incurred in the area’s hotel and tourism industry, which shed 3,600 jobs during the months the summer season concluded.
Two other segments — construction as well as trade, transportation and utilities (which includes retail trade) shrunk by 700 jobs each, the report found.
On the plus side, professional and business services increased by 2,000 jobs, with the largest gain found in the professional, scientific and technical subcategory, which jumped by about 900 jobs.
The government sector, which includes teachers and other workers at school districts, had the largest overall increase for the month, gaining by 9,300. About 5,400 of that number came from education, while the remainder was attributed to mainly state and other government related jobs.
Over the full year, the categories that have sustained the greatest job losses are trade, transportation and utilities, down 11,600; professional and business services, down 10,800; construction, down 9,700; leisure and hospitality, down 8,600; and manufacturing, down 8,000.
— Mike Allen
Source:http://www.sdbj.com/industry_article.asp?aID=142654
Duckmaster and other odd hotel jobs
There's more to providing hotel services than sometimes meets the eye. Here are some of the more unusual behind-the-scenes hotel jobs.
Coin polishers
Rob Holsen is the official "coin washer" at San Francisco's Westin St. Francis Hotel. In 1935, general manager Dan London noticed that women attending weekly fashion shows at the hotel were soiling their white gloves on the change they used to pay for lunch, so he decided that all coins used at the St. Francis would be washed.
"In recent years, when I was a cashier at the hotel, we were required to segregate 'dirty money' from clean," Holsen says. "Anyone who was observed giving dirty money to guests was admonished according to the St. Francis Clean Money Policy. The 'dirty money' was returned to the general cashier for washing and reissue."
Although credit cards have replaced cash and cellphones have replaced pay phones, coins still circulate. "We continue the tradition of coin washing because it represents a tradition of elegance of times past," he says.
Duckmaster
At the Peabody hotel in Memphis, Tenn., five mallard ducks live in a penthouse on the roof. At 11 a.m. each day, they march to the lobby, where they splash in the fountain until 5 p.m., when the ceremony reverses. Duckmaster Jason Sensat feeds, cares for and trains the ducks.
"Many think this is a fun and glamorous job, and quite often it is with media interviews, travel and celebrity honorary Duckmasters -- but it's also a dirty job, as cleaning up after the flock is part of the job too," Sensat says.
Nuclear mixologist
Daniel Puglisi, food and beverage manager at the Hotel Victor in Miami Beach, is the hotel's resident "nuclear mixologist."
What is nuclear mixology? It's really cool and truly an art form. "Mixologists" drop the temperature of alcohol to minus-237.2 degrees Fahrenheit (the temperature at which alcohol freezes), which creates visually theatrical cocktails, spicing up the classics.
"What got me interested in molecular or nuclear mixology was the current state of the bar and nightclub industry," Puglisi says. "I became so tired of hearing the 'Vodka Red Bull' or 'Vodka Cranberry' that I just wanted to take the classics and turn them inside out and upside down. I want to show people there are other possibilities out there than the classic cocktails we're drinking now."
One of Puglisi's recent creations is a take on the mojito. "What I do differently is combine all of the classic ingredients and purée them into a mint and lime juice. I then use liquid nitrogen to freeze the solution in ice cube trays. To construct the cocktail you use the mojito "ice cubes" and top them with rum and club soda. The drink tastes like the best mojito you have ever had but looks more like a spaced-out green martini."
Mud manager
Mud manager Mike Rowe collects and cleanses volcanic ash and maintains the mud baths at Dr. Wilkinson's Hot Springs Resort in Calistoga, Calif. He combines pure volcanic ash and mineralized hot springs water with Canadian peat to make its unique mud treatment.
Maitre d'fromage
At the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., Carolyn Stromberg, the full-time artisan cheese expert at its Old Hickory Steakhouse, oversees an inventory of fine cheeses worth more than $8,000. She procures all cheeses, ages them in the restaurant's temperature- and humidity-controlled "cheese cave" and serves them to guests.
"I try to find cheeses that are difficult to find so our guests can try something new," Stromberg says. "I set up the actual cart, which I then bring table-side to our guests so I can describe the night's offerings and figure out what our guests will truly enjoy."
Elephant camp coordinator
"Elephant camp coordinator isn't a job title seen in many classified ads," says Taweesak Keereekaew, who cares for the elephants at the Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle, Chiang Rai, Thailand.
Source:http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-trw-quirkyjobs22-2009nov22,0,2352458.story
Coin polishers
Rob Holsen is the official "coin washer" at San Francisco's Westin St. Francis Hotel. In 1935, general manager Dan London noticed that women attending weekly fashion shows at the hotel were soiling their white gloves on the change they used to pay for lunch, so he decided that all coins used at the St. Francis would be washed.
"In recent years, when I was a cashier at the hotel, we were required to segregate 'dirty money' from clean," Holsen says. "Anyone who was observed giving dirty money to guests was admonished according to the St. Francis Clean Money Policy. The 'dirty money' was returned to the general cashier for washing and reissue."
Although credit cards have replaced cash and cellphones have replaced pay phones, coins still circulate. "We continue the tradition of coin washing because it represents a tradition of elegance of times past," he says.
Duckmaster
At the Peabody hotel in Memphis, Tenn., five mallard ducks live in a penthouse on the roof. At 11 a.m. each day, they march to the lobby, where they splash in the fountain until 5 p.m., when the ceremony reverses. Duckmaster Jason Sensat feeds, cares for and trains the ducks.
"Many think this is a fun and glamorous job, and quite often it is with media interviews, travel and celebrity honorary Duckmasters -- but it's also a dirty job, as cleaning up after the flock is part of the job too," Sensat says.
Nuclear mixologist
Daniel Puglisi, food and beverage manager at the Hotel Victor in Miami Beach, is the hotel's resident "nuclear mixologist."
What is nuclear mixology? It's really cool and truly an art form. "Mixologists" drop the temperature of alcohol to minus-237.2 degrees Fahrenheit (the temperature at which alcohol freezes), which creates visually theatrical cocktails, spicing up the classics.
"What got me interested in molecular or nuclear mixology was the current state of the bar and nightclub industry," Puglisi says. "I became so tired of hearing the 'Vodka Red Bull' or 'Vodka Cranberry' that I just wanted to take the classics and turn them inside out and upside down. I want to show people there are other possibilities out there than the classic cocktails we're drinking now."
One of Puglisi's recent creations is a take on the mojito. "What I do differently is combine all of the classic ingredients and purée them into a mint and lime juice. I then use liquid nitrogen to freeze the solution in ice cube trays. To construct the cocktail you use the mojito "ice cubes" and top them with rum and club soda. The drink tastes like the best mojito you have ever had but looks more like a spaced-out green martini."
Mud manager
Mud manager Mike Rowe collects and cleanses volcanic ash and maintains the mud baths at Dr. Wilkinson's Hot Springs Resort in Calistoga, Calif. He combines pure volcanic ash and mineralized hot springs water with Canadian peat to make its unique mud treatment.
Maitre d'fromage
At the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., Carolyn Stromberg, the full-time artisan cheese expert at its Old Hickory Steakhouse, oversees an inventory of fine cheeses worth more than $8,000. She procures all cheeses, ages them in the restaurant's temperature- and humidity-controlled "cheese cave" and serves them to guests.
"I try to find cheeses that are difficult to find so our guests can try something new," Stromberg says. "I set up the actual cart, which I then bring table-side to our guests so I can describe the night's offerings and figure out what our guests will truly enjoy."
Elephant camp coordinator
"Elephant camp coordinator isn't a job title seen in many classified ads," says Taweesak Keereekaew, who cares for the elephants at the Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle, Chiang Rai, Thailand.
Source:http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-trw-quirkyjobs22-2009nov22,0,2352458.story
Indiana's jobless rate crawls up to 9.8%
Indiana's jobless rate inched up last month as the Indianapolis area's recovery paused amid layoffs among government and leisure industry workers, labor market reports show.October's state unemployment rate crept to 9.8 percent from September's 9.7 percent, the Indiana Department of Workforce Development said Friday.
The statewide jobless rate continued to outperform industrial neighbors and the nation's. The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 10.2 percent in October from 9.8 percent the month before.
Although economists say production is climbing nationwide and the recession has ended, officials remained wary about prospects for new jobs coming in large numbers.
"Indiana's unemployment rate has held relatively steady for the past three months despite a steadily climbing national rate," said Teresa Voors, workforce development agency commissioner. "However, a projected soft holiday retail season combined with a slump in manufacturing and hospitality employment tempers my optimism concerning the coming moths."
In metropolitan Indianapolis, employers reported 880,800 jobs filled last month, a decline of 2,300 since September, according to preliminary results from a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics survey.
Late summer job growth edged the metro jobless rate down to 7.7 percent in September from the recession peak of 8.7 percent in June and July.
October is usually a steady month for employment, but last month's slowdown could push up the local jobless rate when it is figured later this month.
Hotel, bars, restaurant and other leisure and hospitality companies let go 4,000 jobs, and government at all levels shed 2,300, all in the metro area, the BLS survey shows.
Cushioning the local economy was soft hiring in some other fields. Stores and warehouses added 100 jobs, for example, and professional services added 500. The latter class includes lawyers, accountants and temporary help agencies.
October was a decidedly negative month for the Indianapolis metro area compared with peer cities in the interior states.
Source:http://www.indystar.com/article/20091121/BUSINESS/911210328/Indiana-s-jobless-rate-crawls-up-to-9.8
The statewide jobless rate continued to outperform industrial neighbors and the nation's. The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 10.2 percent in October from 9.8 percent the month before.
Although economists say production is climbing nationwide and the recession has ended, officials remained wary about prospects for new jobs coming in large numbers.
"Indiana's unemployment rate has held relatively steady for the past three months despite a steadily climbing national rate," said Teresa Voors, workforce development agency commissioner. "However, a projected soft holiday retail season combined with a slump in manufacturing and hospitality employment tempers my optimism concerning the coming moths."
In metropolitan Indianapolis, employers reported 880,800 jobs filled last month, a decline of 2,300 since September, according to preliminary results from a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics survey.
Late summer job growth edged the metro jobless rate down to 7.7 percent in September from the recession peak of 8.7 percent in June and July.
October is usually a steady month for employment, but last month's slowdown could push up the local jobless rate when it is figured later this month.
Hotel, bars, restaurant and other leisure and hospitality companies let go 4,000 jobs, and government at all levels shed 2,300, all in the metro area, the BLS survey shows.
Cushioning the local economy was soft hiring in some other fields. Stores and warehouses added 100 jobs, for example, and professional services added 500. The latter class includes lawyers, accountants and temporary help agencies.
October was a decidedly negative month for the Indianapolis metro area compared with peer cities in the interior states.
Source:http://www.indystar.com/article/20091121/BUSINESS/911210328/Indiana-s-jobless-rate-crawls-up-to-9.8
Friday, November 20, 2009
Monterey Hotel Workers Demand Their Jobs Back
MONTEREY, Calif. - At least 100 union hotel workers marched and held a vigil in Monterey Wednesday to raise awareness about recent layoffs. They said big hotel chains were laying-off long-time workers, replacing them with cheaper labor and using the economy as an excuse.
Maria Santos spent more than a decade as a hilton garden inn housekeeper until earlier this year when she said new ownership took over the hotel.
"They told us that we weren't contracted with the new company and the computer didn't process our applications since we had to apply for our jobs again," explained Santos. She said twelve other workers were let go in all. "Then, right after we left, they replaced us with seventeen workers," she added.
Hotel workers across the country said they have also suffered similar experiences. UNITE HERE Local 483 helped organize nationwide protests and vigils in response.
Leonard O'Neill of Local 483 said other chains like the Hyatt Corporation are doing the same thing, even laying off as many as a hundred workers in Boston recently.
"The hundred workers were making $15 an hour in Boston, and they brought in a hundred workers from Georgia at $8 an hour to replace them and they're giving them more rooms to do," said O'Neill. "So it gives you an idea the thinking of corporate America," he added.
Santos said she simply wants answers as she faces an uncertain future. "I have a house to pay for and two kids in college and I don't know what's going to happen," said Santos.
Central Coast News tried several times to get a statement on the situation from the Hilton Garden Inn and the Monterey Hyatt Regency, but they never returned our calls.
Meanwhile, Local 483 members said they planned to hold future protests demanding the laid-off workers are re-hired.
Maria Santos spent more than a decade as a hilton garden inn housekeeper until earlier this year when she said new ownership took over the hotel.
"They told us that we weren't contracted with the new company and the computer didn't process our applications since we had to apply for our jobs again," explained Santos. She said twelve other workers were let go in all. "Then, right after we left, they replaced us with seventeen workers," she added.
Hotel workers across the country said they have also suffered similar experiences. UNITE HERE Local 483 helped organize nationwide protests and vigils in response.
Leonard O'Neill of Local 483 said other chains like the Hyatt Corporation are doing the same thing, even laying off as many as a hundred workers in Boston recently.
"The hundred workers were making $15 an hour in Boston, and they brought in a hundred workers from Georgia at $8 an hour to replace them and they're giving them more rooms to do," said O'Neill. "So it gives you an idea the thinking of corporate America," he added.
Santos said she simply wants answers as she faces an uncertain future. "I have a house to pay for and two kids in college and I don't know what's going to happen," said Santos.
Central Coast News tried several times to get a statement on the situation from the Hilton Garden Inn and the Monterey Hyatt Regency, but they never returned our calls.
Meanwhile, Local 483 members said they planned to hold future protests demanding the laid-off workers are re-hired.
Starwood Plans to Relocate to Connecticut
Lured by government incentives worth as much as $89.5 million, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. will move its corporate headquarters to Stamford, Conn., from New York's Westchester County, Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell said Wednesday.
The relocation, slated to be completed in 2012, will bring an estimated 800 jobs to the state, Ms. Rell said. The incentives include a $9.5 million loan, as much as $5 million in sales tax relief and up to $75 million in tax credits.
State and local governments in the New York City region have regularly used these types of incentives to woo each others businesses. New Jersey earlier this fall used an $89 million incentive package to convince the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. to move 1,600 employees from New York City to Jersey City.
Starwood will move to Harbor Point, a large mixed-use real estate development under construction in Stamford's south end, which is currently home to accounting firm Deloitte. The landlord, a local firm called Building & Land Technologies will shoulder some of the cost of the estimated $40 million renovation of the 250,000-square-foot space. Starwood said the move would save 20% annually in rent. Brokerage Newmark Knight Frank represented the hotel company.
Starwood is one of the world's largest hotel companies with nine hospitality brands including Sheraton, Westin, St. Regis and W Hotels.
The relocation, slated to be completed in 2012, will bring an estimated 800 jobs to the state, Ms. Rell said. The incentives include a $9.5 million loan, as much as $5 million in sales tax relief and up to $75 million in tax credits.
State and local governments in the New York City region have regularly used these types of incentives to woo each others businesses. New Jersey earlier this fall used an $89 million incentive package to convince the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. to move 1,600 employees from New York City to Jersey City.
Starwood will move to Harbor Point, a large mixed-use real estate development under construction in Stamford's south end, which is currently home to accounting firm Deloitte. The landlord, a local firm called Building & Land Technologies will shoulder some of the cost of the estimated $40 million renovation of the 250,000-square-foot space. Starwood said the move would save 20% annually in rent. Brokerage Newmark Knight Frank represented the hotel company.
Starwood is one of the world's largest hotel companies with nine hospitality brands including Sheraton, Westin, St. Regis and W Hotels.
Four Seasons, Jumeirah Planning to Open in Brazil
Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts and Jumeirah Group plan to open their first hotels in Brazil as rising incomes in Latin America’s largest economy and the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic games generate demand.
“The time is right now for us to be entering the Brazilian market,” James Erlacher, senior vice president of development for the Americas at the Dubai-based Jumeirah Group, said in an interview in New York.
Jumeirah’s priority is to operate hotels in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s biggest cities, and it’s also considering resorts “primarily in the northeast part of the country,” Erlacher said. The Four Seasons expects to reach agreements with developers of three projects in the next 18 months, including hotels in Sao Paulo and Rio and a beach resort, Alinio Azevedo, the chain’s director of development for South America and the Caribbean, said in an interview.
Rio’s victory over Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo to host the 2016 Olympics will help sustain Brazil’s growth by bringing $51.1 billion into the economy through 2027 and adding 120,000 jobs annually in the next seven years, according to a Sao Paulo business school study prepared for the Ministry of Sports. Six straight months of job growth, coupled with tax breaks and record low borrowing costs, is driving up consumer spending in Brazil and helping the economy rebound from a recession faster than most countries.
‘Top-Tier’ Priority
Jumeirah currently operates only one hotel in the Americas, the Essex House in New York, and is developing a polo-themed resort outside of Buenos Aires as well as resorts in Costa Rica, and Saint Thomas.
Jumeirah views Brazil as a “top-tier” priority, Erlacher said. “Brazil is a healthy robust market with good supply and demand dynamics working in its favor,” he said in the Nov. 17 interview in New York.
The number of Brazilian guests in Toronto-based Four Seasons’ hotels and resorts is rising and its reservation desks are getting calls asking about accommodations in Rio and Sao Paulo, underscoring domestic and overseas demand for its planned hotels, Azevedo said.
“The number one attraction for us is really understanding the wealth creation that has happened in Brazil in the last eight to 10 years,” Azevedo said at a New York event Nov. 17 on investment opportunities in real estate and tourism in Brazil, a country with 192 million people.
Brazil’s Real Gains
Further strengthening of the Brazilian real, which has rallied 34 percent this year against the dollar, the most of any major currency, may drive away foreign visitors before Rio hosts the 2016 Olympics, Tourism Minister Luiz Barreto said Oct. 30 in a Bloomberg Television interview.
The real’s gains have been driven in part by investors buying stocks and bonds on prospects the country is among those emerging fastest from the global financial crisis.
Brazil won an investment-grade rating from Moody’s Investors Service in September, putting it one level above high- yield or junk at all three major ratings companies. Moody’s cited Brazil’s “strong economic and financial resilience” during the worldwide slowdown.
The $1.6 trillion economy grew 1.9 percent in the second quarter from the previous three months, emerging from a recession. Economists surveyed by the central bank Nov. 13 predicted gross domestic product will expand 0.2 percent this year and 5 percent in 2010, according to the median estimate.
The Olympic Games will add 1 percent to gross domestic product in coming years, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said Oct. 4. The 2014 World Cup, which Brazil also will host, will add another 1 percent to GDP, Mantega said.
Misery Declines
Brazil’s misery index as measured by the inflation rate plus the unemployment rate, fell to 11.9 percent from 14.1 percent last year. That compares with 17.3 percent for Russia and 19 percent for India. The gross domestic product-weighted index for the eight largest economies is 7.1 percent compared with 10 percent a year earlier, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
“United States and Asia hotel chains who didn’t pay attention to Brazil before, all of them, absolutely all of them are focused on developing in the country,” Felipe Cavalcante, president of the Association for Real Estate and Tourism Development in the Northeast of Brazil, said in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York on Nov. 16. He cited Hyatt Hotels Corp., Marriott International Inc., Hilton Worldwide, Six Senses Resorts and Spas, Amanresorts and Jumeirah.
“The crisis was good to Brazil, that is the truth,” said Cavalcante.
Marriott is interested in Brazil as “it shows enormous potential,” Thomas Marder, a spokesman for the Bethesda, Maryland-based company, said in an e-mail response to questions. Amanresorts, based in Singapore, has “many projects in the planning stage” and has no further information to release at this time, Anjali Nihalchand said in an e-mail.
“The time is right now for us to be entering the Brazilian market,” James Erlacher, senior vice president of development for the Americas at the Dubai-based Jumeirah Group, said in an interview in New York.
Jumeirah’s priority is to operate hotels in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s biggest cities, and it’s also considering resorts “primarily in the northeast part of the country,” Erlacher said. The Four Seasons expects to reach agreements with developers of three projects in the next 18 months, including hotels in Sao Paulo and Rio and a beach resort, Alinio Azevedo, the chain’s director of development for South America and the Caribbean, said in an interview.
Rio’s victory over Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo to host the 2016 Olympics will help sustain Brazil’s growth by bringing $51.1 billion into the economy through 2027 and adding 120,000 jobs annually in the next seven years, according to a Sao Paulo business school study prepared for the Ministry of Sports. Six straight months of job growth, coupled with tax breaks and record low borrowing costs, is driving up consumer spending in Brazil and helping the economy rebound from a recession faster than most countries.
‘Top-Tier’ Priority
Jumeirah currently operates only one hotel in the Americas, the Essex House in New York, and is developing a polo-themed resort outside of Buenos Aires as well as resorts in Costa Rica, and Saint Thomas.
Jumeirah views Brazil as a “top-tier” priority, Erlacher said. “Brazil is a healthy robust market with good supply and demand dynamics working in its favor,” he said in the Nov. 17 interview in New York.
The number of Brazilian guests in Toronto-based Four Seasons’ hotels and resorts is rising and its reservation desks are getting calls asking about accommodations in Rio and Sao Paulo, underscoring domestic and overseas demand for its planned hotels, Azevedo said.
“The number one attraction for us is really understanding the wealth creation that has happened in Brazil in the last eight to 10 years,” Azevedo said at a New York event Nov. 17 on investment opportunities in real estate and tourism in Brazil, a country with 192 million people.
Brazil’s Real Gains
Further strengthening of the Brazilian real, which has rallied 34 percent this year against the dollar, the most of any major currency, may drive away foreign visitors before Rio hosts the 2016 Olympics, Tourism Minister Luiz Barreto said Oct. 30 in a Bloomberg Television interview.
The real’s gains have been driven in part by investors buying stocks and bonds on prospects the country is among those emerging fastest from the global financial crisis.
Brazil won an investment-grade rating from Moody’s Investors Service in September, putting it one level above high- yield or junk at all three major ratings companies. Moody’s cited Brazil’s “strong economic and financial resilience” during the worldwide slowdown.
The $1.6 trillion economy grew 1.9 percent in the second quarter from the previous three months, emerging from a recession. Economists surveyed by the central bank Nov. 13 predicted gross domestic product will expand 0.2 percent this year and 5 percent in 2010, according to the median estimate.
The Olympic Games will add 1 percent to gross domestic product in coming years, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said Oct. 4. The 2014 World Cup, which Brazil also will host, will add another 1 percent to GDP, Mantega said.
Misery Declines
Brazil’s misery index as measured by the inflation rate plus the unemployment rate, fell to 11.9 percent from 14.1 percent last year. That compares with 17.3 percent for Russia and 19 percent for India. The gross domestic product-weighted index for the eight largest economies is 7.1 percent compared with 10 percent a year earlier, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
“United States and Asia hotel chains who didn’t pay attention to Brazil before, all of them, absolutely all of them are focused on developing in the country,” Felipe Cavalcante, president of the Association for Real Estate and Tourism Development in the Northeast of Brazil, said in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York on Nov. 16. He cited Hyatt Hotels Corp., Marriott International Inc., Hilton Worldwide, Six Senses Resorts and Spas, Amanresorts and Jumeirah.
“The crisis was good to Brazil, that is the truth,” said Cavalcante.
Marriott is interested in Brazil as “it shows enormous potential,” Thomas Marder, a spokesman for the Bethesda, Maryland-based company, said in an e-mail response to questions. Amanresorts, based in Singapore, has “many projects in the planning stage” and has no further information to release at this time, Anjali Nihalchand said in an e-mail.
Marriott CEO Sees Start of Hospitality Industry Recovery
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The chief executive of hotel giant Marriott International, Inc. (MAR) said Thursday the hospitality industry is just beginning to see tentative signs of an economic recovery.
J.W. Marriott, Jr. told The Economic Club he was starting to see early indications of growth, but that the hotel and travel industry is still recovering from a backlash against corporate travel fueled by politics and public anger over the financial meltdown.
"When (Pres.) Obama got up and told the TARP recipients don't go to Las Vegas, don't fly on a corporate jet--that just threw a blanket of despair and dark clouds over the industry," Marriott said, referring to the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program. "They killed a lot of jobs in this industry."
Administration proposals to pass a climate change bill and overhaul the country's health-care system also pose potential threats for the industry, he said.
"Business uncertainty is just huge. We don't know what cap and trade will cost us, we don't know what health care will cost us," he said. "By and large, the government needs to back off."
Marriott did express support for a bill that would promote the United States as a travel destination to international visitors. The country has not seen an increase in foreign travelers since 2000, he said.
Asked about his business decisions by Economic Club President David Rubenstein, Marriott said the hotel chain's expansion into multiple separate brands has served the company well. Marriott pioneered the idea of lower- service, cheaper hotels with its Courtyard brand 26 years ago in response to extensive customer research, he said.
"I said, 'You mean we spent $1 million in research to find out people want a better room and lower price?'" he said. The company now has 800 Courtyard hotels and has expanded from 30 to 75 Ritz Carlton hotels since acquiring the chain.
So far this year Marriott has visited 265 of his hotels. He no longer drops by unannounced, he said. Around 20 years ago, he visited a Newport Beach Marriott hotel, walking into the kitchen around 8 a.m. the day after New Year's.
"The manager came in and about had a stroke. Then I went to the next hotel and everyone was outside waiting for me," he said. "I've given up the sneak attack."
-By Kristina Peterson, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6619; kristina.peterson@ dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
11-19-09 1409ET
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Source:http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200911191409DOWJONESDJONLINE000678_FORTUNE5.htm
J.W. Marriott, Jr. told The Economic Club he was starting to see early indications of growth, but that the hotel and travel industry is still recovering from a backlash against corporate travel fueled by politics and public anger over the financial meltdown.
"When (Pres.) Obama got up and told the TARP recipients don't go to Las Vegas, don't fly on a corporate jet--that just threw a blanket of despair and dark clouds over the industry," Marriott said, referring to the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program. "They killed a lot of jobs in this industry."
Administration proposals to pass a climate change bill and overhaul the country's health-care system also pose potential threats for the industry, he said.
"Business uncertainty is just huge. We don't know what cap and trade will cost us, we don't know what health care will cost us," he said. "By and large, the government needs to back off."
Marriott did express support for a bill that would promote the United States as a travel destination to international visitors. The country has not seen an increase in foreign travelers since 2000, he said.
Asked about his business decisions by Economic Club President David Rubenstein, Marriott said the hotel chain's expansion into multiple separate brands has served the company well. Marriott pioneered the idea of lower- service, cheaper hotels with its Courtyard brand 26 years ago in response to extensive customer research, he said.
"I said, 'You mean we spent $1 million in research to find out people want a better room and lower price?'" he said. The company now has 800 Courtyard hotels and has expanded from 30 to 75 Ritz Carlton hotels since acquiring the chain.
So far this year Marriott has visited 265 of his hotels. He no longer drops by unannounced, he said. Around 20 years ago, he visited a Newport Beach Marriott hotel, walking into the kitchen around 8 a.m. the day after New Year's.
"The manager came in and about had a stroke. Then I went to the next hotel and everyone was outside waiting for me," he said. "I've given up the sneak attack."
-By Kristina Peterson, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6619; kristina.peterson@ dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
11-19-09 1409ET
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Source:http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200911191409DOWJONESDJONLINE000678_FORTUNE5.htm
Church Hosts Thanksgiving Dinner for Those in Need
Christ Episcopal Church is planning to hold its annual Thanksgiving dinner on Nov. 26. The event is open to all members of the community seeking sustenance or fellowship.
Last year, more than 900 meals were served. The church anticipates an even larger turnout this year given the current state of the economy.
Jim Franz, long-time church member and former official with the Alameda Red Cross, coordinates the annual event. He is quick to point out that it is a group effort and would not be possible without the help of Immanuel Lutheran, St. Joseph's Basilica, Meals on Wheels drivers and volunteers from all over the East Bay.
Franz anticipates that more than 50 turkeys, 30 hams, 100 pies, and 400 pounds of mashed potatoes and yams will be served this year.
People have different reasons to participate in the annual feast. "Some come out of need for sustenance, some come so they don't have to eat alone, and many come just for the great food, good company, and the holiday spirit," Franz said.
The community is invited to join Christ Episcopal Church for this annual Thanksgiving Dinner. Food will be served between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., and reservations are not required.
The church is located at 1700 Santa Clara Ave. (at Grand). For mor information, the phone number is 523-7200.
Last year, more than 900 meals were served. The church anticipates an even larger turnout this year given the current state of the economy.
Jim Franz, long-time church member and former official with the Alameda Red Cross, coordinates the annual event. He is quick to point out that it is a group effort and would not be possible without the help of Immanuel Lutheran, St. Joseph's Basilica, Meals on Wheels drivers and volunteers from all over the East Bay.
Franz anticipates that more than 50 turkeys, 30 hams, 100 pies, and 400 pounds of mashed potatoes and yams will be served this year.
People have different reasons to participate in the annual feast. "Some come out of need for sustenance, some come so they don't have to eat alone, and many come just for the great food, good company, and the holiday spirit," Franz said.
The community is invited to join Christ Episcopal Church for this annual Thanksgiving Dinner. Food will be served between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., and reservations are not required.
The church is located at 1700 Santa Clara Ave. (at Grand). For mor information, the phone number is 523-7200.
Twilight Phenomenon Gets Mixed Reaction From Christians
The popular Twilight series, which has spawned a film franchise that releases its second installment, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Friday, is getting mixed reactions from Christians who alternately see it as a doorway into Satanism or a tool for evangelism.
Since 2005, Mormon author Stephenie Meyer's four novels about a vampire named Edward Cullen who hunts game rather than humans and falls in love with teenager Bella Swan have sold more than 70 million copies. The film adaptation of the first book, Twilight, generated $384 million.
In Forks, Wash., where the Twilight series is set, tourism jumped from 18,000 in 2008 to more than 64,000 so far this year. Christians in the town of 3,200 say interest in the books has not only bolstered the local economy but also created a new mission field.
"Instead of us going into a foreign mission field, God is bringing people here," said Jim Chase, pastor of Forks Assembly of God. "We do friendship evangelism. We show them Christ by our actions, we show them Christ by our attitude."
Member Merle Watson, 79, says he's been able to witness to at least 1,000 people since tourists started checking into the Forks hotel where he works to spend a day visiting sites mentioned in the books. Most, he said, are drawn to the story's romance. One college-age woman even began to cry as she told him about the book's appeal. "I would give anything if someone loved me like that," the woman told him.
"I know I'm getting shot down by some people who say I'm making evil good because vampires and werewolves, they're evil," Watson said. "But the people that are coming in here are searching for love. I think if the churches are not meeting this need, we're failing; we're falling short. It's just love they're looking for."
Youth minister Kimberly Powers takes a similar view. After talking with dozens of Twilight fans, she found that the books tapped into a deep longing for love and meaning.
"The girls weren't coming for the vampires, they were coming for the love story," said Powers, co-founder of Walk the Talk Youth Ministries and author of Escaping the Vampire. (Read more about vampire-themed Christian books.)
"These girls are just longing to be accepted," she added. "I've seen this for years and years. This is just another way of drawing them."
Powers wants her book and a forthcoming conference series to compel Twilight readers to see Jesus as their rescuer and hero.
"I want girls to think, I thought Edward Cullen was the thing, but wow, Jesus is truly my rescuer and hero," Powers said. "There just is no comparison. They can get swept up in God's epic story of love. Why settle for fiction when you can have the real thing?"
Iowa minister Bill Schnoebelen, a former Satanist who practiced vampirism for several years, says Christians should avoid Twilight altogether. Unlike fantasies such as The Lord of the Rings, Twilight can spur a dangerous fascination with the occult, he says.
Since Anne Rice's novel Interview With the Vampire and the subsequent film adaptation, Schnoebelen said interest in vampirism has been slowly increasing as a subset of Satanism and the Goth subculture. Now, he says, hundreds of people drink blood as part of vampire cults.
"Yes, [Twilight] is partly fantasy, but there are people who do these things," he said. "It's a false religion."
Even though many Twilight fans may not explore vampirism, he said the books are giving it a dark kind of glamour. "It's a hard thing to get out of," said Schnoebelen, who came to Christ in 1984 and now leads With One Accord Ministries to help others find deliverance from occultism. "If it wasn't for the grace of God I'd either be dead or insane somewhere."
Schnoebelen's concerns are not only about the book's spiritual content. Having earned a master's degree in counseling in 1990, he said Bella's relationship with Edward is equally problematic.
"She's totally destroyed when he goes away," Schnoebelen said. "The only way she can have any kind of peace is when she goes and does some risky behavior. ... She can't exist without this young vampire man. When you think that these books target teen girls, I think that's very reprehensible."
Author Beth Felker Jones, an assistant professor of theology at Wheaton College, has similar concerns.
"Bella ... is willing to erase herself, give up all her plans, her hopes, her dreams," said Jones, who examines Twilight's themes in Touched by a Vampire. "She becomes only about her love and not about anything else in her life, and I think that's not such a great image of what love ought to be with us or for us."
Jones encourages Christians to make their own decision about whether to read the books or watch the films, but she says those do so should view Twilight through "Christ-centered" eyes.
Some Christian parents applaud the books' promotion of abstinence or the pro-life message presented when Bella faces a life-threatening pregnancy. But Jones worries about Christians' willingness to jump on popular bandwagons if there's even a hint of light.
"Yes, the characters wait until they're married, but ... at the end of the day, [the books] are still very erotically charged," Jones said. "They're still about wanting in really deep ways and that's tied to danger because he's a vampire. There's more to think about than just to say: ‘Oh look, these folks wait. Isn't it great to finally have some book in which this happens.'"
Pastor Chase of Forks Assembly of God neither encourages nor discourages his members from reading the books or watching the movie. He says attacks against the Harry Potter books a few years back only made the children in his church want to read them.
"Banning books ... causes people to want to run toward it more," he said. "What we need to be worried about is being Christ to these people as they come to town."
Since 2005, Mormon author Stephenie Meyer's four novels about a vampire named Edward Cullen who hunts game rather than humans and falls in love with teenager Bella Swan have sold more than 70 million copies. The film adaptation of the first book, Twilight, generated $384 million.
In Forks, Wash., where the Twilight series is set, tourism jumped from 18,000 in 2008 to more than 64,000 so far this year. Christians in the town of 3,200 say interest in the books has not only bolstered the local economy but also created a new mission field.
"Instead of us going into a foreign mission field, God is bringing people here," said Jim Chase, pastor of Forks Assembly of God. "We do friendship evangelism. We show them Christ by our actions, we show them Christ by our attitude."
Member Merle Watson, 79, says he's been able to witness to at least 1,000 people since tourists started checking into the Forks hotel where he works to spend a day visiting sites mentioned in the books. Most, he said, are drawn to the story's romance. One college-age woman even began to cry as she told him about the book's appeal. "I would give anything if someone loved me like that," the woman told him.
"I know I'm getting shot down by some people who say I'm making evil good because vampires and werewolves, they're evil," Watson said. "But the people that are coming in here are searching for love. I think if the churches are not meeting this need, we're failing; we're falling short. It's just love they're looking for."
Youth minister Kimberly Powers takes a similar view. After talking with dozens of Twilight fans, she found that the books tapped into a deep longing for love and meaning.
"The girls weren't coming for the vampires, they were coming for the love story," said Powers, co-founder of Walk the Talk Youth Ministries and author of Escaping the Vampire. (Read more about vampire-themed Christian books.)
"These girls are just longing to be accepted," she added. "I've seen this for years and years. This is just another way of drawing them."
Powers wants her book and a forthcoming conference series to compel Twilight readers to see Jesus as their rescuer and hero.
"I want girls to think, I thought Edward Cullen was the thing, but wow, Jesus is truly my rescuer and hero," Powers said. "There just is no comparison. They can get swept up in God's epic story of love. Why settle for fiction when you can have the real thing?"
Iowa minister Bill Schnoebelen, a former Satanist who practiced vampirism for several years, says Christians should avoid Twilight altogether. Unlike fantasies such as The Lord of the Rings, Twilight can spur a dangerous fascination with the occult, he says.
Since Anne Rice's novel Interview With the Vampire and the subsequent film adaptation, Schnoebelen said interest in vampirism has been slowly increasing as a subset of Satanism and the Goth subculture. Now, he says, hundreds of people drink blood as part of vampire cults.
"Yes, [Twilight] is partly fantasy, but there are people who do these things," he said. "It's a false religion."
Even though many Twilight fans may not explore vampirism, he said the books are giving it a dark kind of glamour. "It's a hard thing to get out of," said Schnoebelen, who came to Christ in 1984 and now leads With One Accord Ministries to help others find deliverance from occultism. "If it wasn't for the grace of God I'd either be dead or insane somewhere."
Schnoebelen's concerns are not only about the book's spiritual content. Having earned a master's degree in counseling in 1990, he said Bella's relationship with Edward is equally problematic.
"She's totally destroyed when he goes away," Schnoebelen said. "The only way she can have any kind of peace is when she goes and does some risky behavior. ... She can't exist without this young vampire man. When you think that these books target teen girls, I think that's very reprehensible."
Author Beth Felker Jones, an assistant professor of theology at Wheaton College, has similar concerns.
"Bella ... is willing to erase herself, give up all her plans, her hopes, her dreams," said Jones, who examines Twilight's themes in Touched by a Vampire. "She becomes only about her love and not about anything else in her life, and I think that's not such a great image of what love ought to be with us or for us."
Jones encourages Christians to make their own decision about whether to read the books or watch the films, but she says those do so should view Twilight through "Christ-centered" eyes.
Some Christian parents applaud the books' promotion of abstinence or the pro-life message presented when Bella faces a life-threatening pregnancy. But Jones worries about Christians' willingness to jump on popular bandwagons if there's even a hint of light.
"Yes, the characters wait until they're married, but ... at the end of the day, [the books] are still very erotically charged," Jones said. "They're still about wanting in really deep ways and that's tied to danger because he's a vampire. There's more to think about than just to say: ‘Oh look, these folks wait. Isn't it great to finally have some book in which this happens.'"
Pastor Chase of Forks Assembly of God neither encourages nor discourages his members from reading the books or watching the movie. He says attacks against the Harry Potter books a few years back only made the children in his church want to read them.
"Banning books ... causes people to want to run toward it more," he said. "What we need to be worried about is being Christ to these people as they come to town."
Adam Lambert Campaigns for ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ Remake
Although Adam Lambert is the first to admit he still has a long way to go before proving himself on the music scene and showing that he truly has the staying power of a rock ‘n’ roll god, as fans believe of him, the American Idol runner-up is also planning ahead. More specifically, Adam is also eyeing a career in movies and, according to Broadway World, he knows just where to start.
Adam’s debut music album, “For Your Entertainment,” is just days away from arriving in music stores, but he’s wasting no time in thinking of what could lay ahead of him career-wise. If he had his wish, Lambert would star next as Judas in the remake of the popular “Jesus Christ Superstar,” he reveals in a recent interview for TV Guide cited by the aforementioned publication. In fact, he plans on doing everything in his power to see that he gets that part.
When asked what was next on his agenda, Lambert made no secret of his ambition to become an actor as soon as possible. “I heard they’re trying to do a remake of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ and I want to play Judas. I’m going to start publicly campaigning for it. I think a movie would be really cool!” Adam is quoted as saying.
Of course, fans are none too happy about this so-called expressed intention of Adam’s to start to publicly campaign for a movie role when he repeatedly said in previous interviews that his sole focus at the moment was his music career. They’re not shy of saying it so on dedicated forums either for that matter. However, it could very well be that, even if Lambert made the above comment on a serious note, he did so while still seeing his music as coming first – with acting second.
“I hope acting’s in my future, yeah. It is something that I’ve done a lot over the past eight or 10 years. If the opportunity came up and it was the right thing, I would love to be a part of a film. Right now, I am going to try to work on the album first. One thing at a time, right!” Adam himself was saying in an older interview, as we also reported at the time.
Adam’s debut music album, “For Your Entertainment,” is just days away from arriving in music stores, but he’s wasting no time in thinking of what could lay ahead of him career-wise. If he had his wish, Lambert would star next as Judas in the remake of the popular “Jesus Christ Superstar,” he reveals in a recent interview for TV Guide cited by the aforementioned publication. In fact, he plans on doing everything in his power to see that he gets that part.
When asked what was next on his agenda, Lambert made no secret of his ambition to become an actor as soon as possible. “I heard they’re trying to do a remake of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ and I want to play Judas. I’m going to start publicly campaigning for it. I think a movie would be really cool!” Adam is quoted as saying.
Of course, fans are none too happy about this so-called expressed intention of Adam’s to start to publicly campaign for a movie role when he repeatedly said in previous interviews that his sole focus at the moment was his music career. They’re not shy of saying it so on dedicated forums either for that matter. However, it could very well be that, even if Lambert made the above comment on a serious note, he did so while still seeing his music as coming first – with acting second.
“I hope acting’s in my future, yeah. It is something that I’ve done a lot over the past eight or 10 years. If the opportunity came up and it was the right thing, I would love to be a part of a film. Right now, I am going to try to work on the album first. One thing at a time, right!” Adam himself was saying in an older interview, as we also reported at the time.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Hyatt says 6 of 98 fired Boston workers accept plan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Just six of the 98 Boston housekeepers sacked by Hyatt Hotels Corp in August have taken up its offer of alternative employment, and few have responded to overtures by phone or mail, a Hyatt manager said.
"We've made countless attempts" to contact workers, Philip Stamm, general manager of the Hyatt Regency Boston and head of Hyatt's task force on the matter, said in an interview Monday.
"We're under the impression that they're being misinformed," Stamm said. "They're just rejecting these offers without having an opportunity to evaluate them."
The issue has sparked an uproar among hotel workers nationwide and prompted the governor of Massachusetts to threaten a boycott of the company.
The lack of interest, which Stamm described as "disheartening," has dealt a blow to Hyatt's attempt to address what has been a public relations nightmare.
Stamm said the layoffs were made to protect the viability of Hyatt's three Boston hotels amid the economic downturn.
Hyatt offered the housekeepers new jobs with affiliate United Services Cos and said it would match their previous rate of pay through 2010. The company said it would extend healthcare coverage through March 2010.
Six former housekeepers now work for United Services and another 16 have found other work, Stamm said. He said Hyatt's offer is "very generous" given the bleak economic backdrop.
"Hyatt, I think, is playing games because they think we're stupid," said Luz Aquino, who was a housekeeper at the Hyatt Harborside. She added that the company's offer was not attractive -- offering no benefits after March, or vacation.
Aquino pointed to Monday's Boston Globe column by Kevin Cullen focusing on one housekeeper who learned that her son's hospital visits would no longer be covered by her insurer.
Hyatt spokeswoman Farley Kern said that was a mistake by the insurance provider. She said those claims would now be covered in full.
Hotel union Unite Here has taken up the cause of the housekeepers, who are not in a union, with vigils and rallies in a dozen cities in recent weeks.
On Monday, Unite Here Local 1, a Chicago hotel workers union, staged a rally in front of the Park Hyatt in Chicago, where the hotel company is headquartered.
"Hotel companies are using the economy as an excuse to squeeze workers," said Unite Here spokeswoman Annemarie Strassel. "At this point, Hyatt is the starkest example."
Part of the outrage stems from Hyatt's recent initial public offering. To lure investors, Hyatt touted its strong balance sheet, with more than five times the combined cash of its two rivals, Marriott International and Starwood Hotels & Resorts.
"We've made countless attempts" to contact workers, Philip Stamm, general manager of the Hyatt Regency Boston and head of Hyatt's task force on the matter, said in an interview Monday.
"We're under the impression that they're being misinformed," Stamm said. "They're just rejecting these offers without having an opportunity to evaluate them."
The issue has sparked an uproar among hotel workers nationwide and prompted the governor of Massachusetts to threaten a boycott of the company.
The lack of interest, which Stamm described as "disheartening," has dealt a blow to Hyatt's attempt to address what has been a public relations nightmare.
Stamm said the layoffs were made to protect the viability of Hyatt's three Boston hotels amid the economic downturn.
Hyatt offered the housekeepers new jobs with affiliate United Services Cos and said it would match their previous rate of pay through 2010. The company said it would extend healthcare coverage through March 2010.
Six former housekeepers now work for United Services and another 16 have found other work, Stamm said. He said Hyatt's offer is "very generous" given the bleak economic backdrop.
"Hyatt, I think, is playing games because they think we're stupid," said Luz Aquino, who was a housekeeper at the Hyatt Harborside. She added that the company's offer was not attractive -- offering no benefits after March, or vacation.
Aquino pointed to Monday's Boston Globe column by Kevin Cullen focusing on one housekeeper who learned that her son's hospital visits would no longer be covered by her insurer.
Hyatt spokeswoman Farley Kern said that was a mistake by the insurance provider. She said those claims would now be covered in full.
Hotel union Unite Here has taken up the cause of the housekeepers, who are not in a union, with vigils and rallies in a dozen cities in recent weeks.
On Monday, Unite Here Local 1, a Chicago hotel workers union, staged a rally in front of the Park Hyatt in Chicago, where the hotel company is headquartered.
"Hotel companies are using the economy as an excuse to squeeze workers," said Unite Here spokeswoman Annemarie Strassel. "At this point, Hyatt is the starkest example."
Part of the outrage stems from Hyatt's recent initial public offering. To lure investors, Hyatt touted its strong balance sheet, with more than five times the combined cash of its two rivals, Marriott International and Starwood Hotels & Resorts.
Travelodge to create 250 hotel jobs
Travelodge is set to create 250 hotel jobs as it presses ahead with its expansion plans.
The chain has announced plans to open ten new hotels next year at a cost of £47 million.
Its plans will create hotel jobs in a range of towns and cities including London, Ipswich, Llanelli, Manchester and Edinburgh.
Commenting on the move, Paul Harvey, Travelodge's managing director of development, explained that the 2010 hotels will follow on from what has been a record year for expansion.
He said: "With 60 [contract] exchanges announced in 2009, we have now signed more hotels this year than ever before."
Earlier this month, the firm revealed that it is creating 150 hotel jobs across the UK.
The company is currently in the process of opening new hotels in Liverpool, Macclesfield, Newquay, Bournemouth, Edinburgh, Norwich and Farnborough at a total cost of £22 million.
The chain has announced plans to open ten new hotels next year at a cost of £47 million.
Its plans will create hotel jobs in a range of towns and cities including London, Ipswich, Llanelli, Manchester and Edinburgh.
Commenting on the move, Paul Harvey, Travelodge's managing director of development, explained that the 2010 hotels will follow on from what has been a record year for expansion.
He said: "With 60 [contract] exchanges announced in 2009, we have now signed more hotels this year than ever before."
Earlier this month, the firm revealed that it is creating 150 hotel jobs across the UK.
The company is currently in the process of opening new hotels in Liverpool, Macclesfield, Newquay, Bournemouth, Edinburgh, Norwich and Farnborough at a total cost of £22 million.
Mumbai’s Taj gives jobs to 26/11 victims
For the past two days, Mohammed Iqbal Khan (22) has been learning how to welcome guests.
The Kashmiri boy, who survived a gunshot in his stomach during the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, is being trained to work in the hospitality industry by the Taj Group of Hotels.
Set up last December, the Taj Public Service Welfare Trust is providing vocational training to around 40 people who were either injured or are relatives of those who died.
“The 26/11 attacks changed my life completely. I was a Kashmiri and now I am a hardcore Mumbaikar. It’s like my second birth,” said Khan after a day of training at the Taj Lands End hotel in Bandra.
Khan was working in a pashmina shawl store on Colaba Causeway and was hit by a bullet near Leopold Café.
“The Trust is not promising jobs, but it is most likely that a majority of these people will be absorbed within the Taj Group of Hotels and the Tata Group,” said a Taj spokesperson, who requested anonymity in keeping with company policy.
The Kashmiri boy, who survived a gunshot in his stomach during the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, is being trained to work in the hospitality industry by the Taj Group of Hotels.
Set up last December, the Taj Public Service Welfare Trust is providing vocational training to around 40 people who were either injured or are relatives of those who died.
“The 26/11 attacks changed my life completely. I was a Kashmiri and now I am a hardcore Mumbaikar. It’s like my second birth,” said Khan after a day of training at the Taj Lands End hotel in Bandra.
Khan was working in a pashmina shawl store on Colaba Causeway and was hit by a bullet near Leopold Café.
“The Trust is not promising jobs, but it is most likely that a majority of these people will be absorbed within the Taj Group of Hotels and the Tata Group,” said a Taj spokesperson, who requested anonymity in keeping with company policy.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Rebuilding Las Vegas
Sitting in a Starbucks close to his Las Vegas Boulevard office, Tony Dennis scrawled the word "bailout" on a scrap of paper.
It was September 2008, the start of the great American credit crunch, and Las Vegas was the epicentre of all things wrong with real estate.
"Banks were getting a bailout, but who would bail us out if things went south?" Dennis wondered. As head of residential real estate for City Center, the world's largest privately financed realty project, there was a lot at stake.
The Canadian is responsible for selling luxury condos in a market with the highest foreclosure rate on the planet. The $8.4 billion (U.S.) project of condominiums, casinos, hotels and retail plazas is ambitious, even by lofty Vegas standards.
On a massive 27-hectare lot in downtown Vegas, the project is equivalent to building a city on top of a city. If there were a job description for "world's toughest job in real estate," Tony Dennis's picture would be below the headline.
"There were some tough days when you're just exhausted emotionally, physically and mentally," says Dennis, who grew up in Toronto. "Who knew that we would be caught up in this incredible web of negative events that would cause the economic problems that we're having?"
The implosion of the real estate market in Las Vegas has meant Dennis has done what once would seem unthinkable.
Last month, he announced he'd slash the prices of all his 2,440 condos by 30 per cent – not just for future buyers, but also for existing purchasers. For a developer with a project of this scale, it was an unprecedented move. And it's a cautionary tale of what can happen when condo markets get out of hand.
"When you buy an unfinished piece of property, circumstances can change, the world can change. And that's what just happened," says Janet Brashear, senior analyst at Bernstein Research in New York.
Analysts say City Center, a joint venture between MGM Mirage and Dubai World, the development arm of the government of Dubai, had to take drastic action or existing sales would not close.
"There was going to be little incentive to close without a discount, given that the market had changed," says Brashear.
When the project came to market in 2007, the timing could not have been worse. The great recession and credit crunch would burst the real estate bubble, wiping out demand for luxury, discretionary purchases such as vacation homes.
A dispute between MGM and Dubai World threatened to derail the project, which was on the brink of bankruptcy. (An agreement was reached earlier this year.) In between, there were construction deaths and a shareholder lawsuit over MGM's falling stock price. Shares hit a high of $74 in 2007 before plummeting to $1.81 in March. On Friday, after the casino giant announced a $955 million writedown of the project, shares closed at $9.27, down 4.7 per cent, on the New York Stock Exchange. Analysts still fear City Center's 6,000 rooms will flood the market, driving down hotel rates and cutting MGM's bottom line.
The project has been on the edge of ruin for so long, Dennis has seemingly been running on adrenalin and caffeine to stay ahead of the game. With a BlackBerry and a notebook at hand to jot down his thoughts, he can be found at Starbucks at 6 every morning. It is his only quiet time of the day.
"It's been difficult for everyone, and we've been trying to communicate with our buyers as best as possible," says Dennis. "But what we did was unprecedented. Developers don't typically give everyone a discount as a pre-emptive gift." What Dennis and company officials did was take more than $500 million off the table. It wasn't done lightly – Dennis had chaired a summer meeting of consultants, architects and real estate executives to discuss how to make City Center viable – but he knew that if he didn't give some kind of a discount, sales would not close. That would jeopardize the whole project.
The mood at that meeting contrasted starkly with events of two years earlier, when Dennis and his 130-person sales team had sold $1.6 billion worth of City Center real estate in just 12 months – more than the combined worth of Toronto's Four Seasons, Trump and Ritz Carlton projects.
Starchitects such as Daniel Libeskind, whose City Center retail mail is reminiscent of the Royal Ontario Museum's crystal, had been hired to attract luxury buyers. It worked.
The average cost of one of the 207 units at the sold-out Mandarin Oriental residences was $3.2 million, or a heady $1,600 per square foot. (The average new condo in Toronto sells for $474 per square foot.)
Bling was king, and Vegas was the capital of excess.
Today, one in every 47 homes exchanging hands in Vegas is a distress sale, the highest rate in the U.S. No wonder worried buyers lined up outside Dennis' office.
So far, he says, the discounting of suites has met with good response.
One Calgary purchaser upgraded from an $800,000 unit to a $1.2 million suite. Canadian sales, mostly to Vancouver and Calgary residents, have been about $40 million so far. A high-flying loonie and Canadians looking for a bargain in a good climate are also attracting attention, he says.
But City Center units will still be competing with a plethora of other real estate options for investors in a city awash with new condos.
Given the rocky economy, Brashear says that for some clients, no amount of discounting will work. "The buyer may not have the money and will simply have to walk away," she says.
It's Dennis' job to make sure they don't.
When MGM executives hired him to head up City Center's residential side, there arguably was nobody better prepared for selling luxury condo developments. Dennis, who comes from a family of builders based in Toronto, cut his teeth at top Canadian developers.
"Toronto has an incredible wealth of development talent," he says. "There are a lot of people who are really good at what they do, maybe the best in the world."
His luxury experience included work with the Four Seasons, and a stint with Minto, where he oversaw the development of the Prince Arthur condominiums in Yorkville, still considered a landmark luxury building. To sell the empty 10,000-square- foot penthouse, he threw a party for prospective buyers with a glamorous mix of people, including actor Christopher Plummer.
Toronto's Tony Dennis tasked with massive job of selling luxury condos
In Las Vegas, his 27,000-square-foot sales pavilion is modelled after one he first developed in Oakville in the 1990s for River Oaks homes.
"I wanted to give customers an experience. I figured they were driving through all these cookie-cutter subdivisions and just bought at the last one because they were too tired to go on," says Dennis.
The experience served him well when he was recruited by MGM. By the end of the year, the City Center casino will open, followed by closings on the condominiums.
And there might be some light at the end of the billion-dollar tunnel.
Median existing home prices in Las Vegas rose 0.7 per cent in June from the previous month; annual sales are up 63 per cent from a year ago as people hunt for bargains.
"There seems to be a sense that people are waiting for a recovery rather than waiting for the end," says Dennis. "It's not just a collection of buildings. It will be a true community, a diverse, artistic place where you can live, play and stay.
"I think it will be the catalyst for the renaissance of Las Vegas."
That isn't just marketing talk. Vegas needs City Center to work
Last month, MGM started to fill 12,000 jobs and got 160,000 applications. The unemployment rate is 13.2 per cent, and there is a lot of hope invested in the project.
"This is my space shuttle mission, my moon shot, it doesn't get bigger than this," says Dennis. "This is the job of a lifetime and we've been entrusted to bring this home."
It was September 2008, the start of the great American credit crunch, and Las Vegas was the epicentre of all things wrong with real estate.
"Banks were getting a bailout, but who would bail us out if things went south?" Dennis wondered. As head of residential real estate for City Center, the world's largest privately financed realty project, there was a lot at stake.
The Canadian is responsible for selling luxury condos in a market with the highest foreclosure rate on the planet. The $8.4 billion (U.S.) project of condominiums, casinos, hotels and retail plazas is ambitious, even by lofty Vegas standards.
On a massive 27-hectare lot in downtown Vegas, the project is equivalent to building a city on top of a city. If there were a job description for "world's toughest job in real estate," Tony Dennis's picture would be below the headline.
"There were some tough days when you're just exhausted emotionally, physically and mentally," says Dennis, who grew up in Toronto. "Who knew that we would be caught up in this incredible web of negative events that would cause the economic problems that we're having?"
The implosion of the real estate market in Las Vegas has meant Dennis has done what once would seem unthinkable.
Last month, he announced he'd slash the prices of all his 2,440 condos by 30 per cent – not just for future buyers, but also for existing purchasers. For a developer with a project of this scale, it was an unprecedented move. And it's a cautionary tale of what can happen when condo markets get out of hand.
"When you buy an unfinished piece of property, circumstances can change, the world can change. And that's what just happened," says Janet Brashear, senior analyst at Bernstein Research in New York.
Analysts say City Center, a joint venture between MGM Mirage and Dubai World, the development arm of the government of Dubai, had to take drastic action or existing sales would not close.
"There was going to be little incentive to close without a discount, given that the market had changed," says Brashear.
When the project came to market in 2007, the timing could not have been worse. The great recession and credit crunch would burst the real estate bubble, wiping out demand for luxury, discretionary purchases such as vacation homes.
A dispute between MGM and Dubai World threatened to derail the project, which was on the brink of bankruptcy. (An agreement was reached earlier this year.) In between, there were construction deaths and a shareholder lawsuit over MGM's falling stock price. Shares hit a high of $74 in 2007 before plummeting to $1.81 in March. On Friday, after the casino giant announced a $955 million writedown of the project, shares closed at $9.27, down 4.7 per cent, on the New York Stock Exchange. Analysts still fear City Center's 6,000 rooms will flood the market, driving down hotel rates and cutting MGM's bottom line.
The project has been on the edge of ruin for so long, Dennis has seemingly been running on adrenalin and caffeine to stay ahead of the game. With a BlackBerry and a notebook at hand to jot down his thoughts, he can be found at Starbucks at 6 every morning. It is his only quiet time of the day.
"It's been difficult for everyone, and we've been trying to communicate with our buyers as best as possible," says Dennis. "But what we did was unprecedented. Developers don't typically give everyone a discount as a pre-emptive gift." What Dennis and company officials did was take more than $500 million off the table. It wasn't done lightly – Dennis had chaired a summer meeting of consultants, architects and real estate executives to discuss how to make City Center viable – but he knew that if he didn't give some kind of a discount, sales would not close. That would jeopardize the whole project.
The mood at that meeting contrasted starkly with events of two years earlier, when Dennis and his 130-person sales team had sold $1.6 billion worth of City Center real estate in just 12 months – more than the combined worth of Toronto's Four Seasons, Trump and Ritz Carlton projects.
Starchitects such as Daniel Libeskind, whose City Center retail mail is reminiscent of the Royal Ontario Museum's crystal, had been hired to attract luxury buyers. It worked.
The average cost of one of the 207 units at the sold-out Mandarin Oriental residences was $3.2 million, or a heady $1,600 per square foot. (The average new condo in Toronto sells for $474 per square foot.)
Bling was king, and Vegas was the capital of excess.
Today, one in every 47 homes exchanging hands in Vegas is a distress sale, the highest rate in the U.S. No wonder worried buyers lined up outside Dennis' office.
So far, he says, the discounting of suites has met with good response.
One Calgary purchaser upgraded from an $800,000 unit to a $1.2 million suite. Canadian sales, mostly to Vancouver and Calgary residents, have been about $40 million so far. A high-flying loonie and Canadians looking for a bargain in a good climate are also attracting attention, he says.
But City Center units will still be competing with a plethora of other real estate options for investors in a city awash with new condos.
Given the rocky economy, Brashear says that for some clients, no amount of discounting will work. "The buyer may not have the money and will simply have to walk away," she says.
It's Dennis' job to make sure they don't.
When MGM executives hired him to head up City Center's residential side, there arguably was nobody better prepared for selling luxury condo developments. Dennis, who comes from a family of builders based in Toronto, cut his teeth at top Canadian developers.
"Toronto has an incredible wealth of development talent," he says. "There are a lot of people who are really good at what they do, maybe the best in the world."
His luxury experience included work with the Four Seasons, and a stint with Minto, where he oversaw the development of the Prince Arthur condominiums in Yorkville, still considered a landmark luxury building. To sell the empty 10,000-square- foot penthouse, he threw a party for prospective buyers with a glamorous mix of people, including actor Christopher Plummer.
Toronto's Tony Dennis tasked with massive job of selling luxury condos
In Las Vegas, his 27,000-square-foot sales pavilion is modelled after one he first developed in Oakville in the 1990s for River Oaks homes.
"I wanted to give customers an experience. I figured they were driving through all these cookie-cutter subdivisions and just bought at the last one because they were too tired to go on," says Dennis.
The experience served him well when he was recruited by MGM. By the end of the year, the City Center casino will open, followed by closings on the condominiums.
And there might be some light at the end of the billion-dollar tunnel.
Median existing home prices in Las Vegas rose 0.7 per cent in June from the previous month; annual sales are up 63 per cent from a year ago as people hunt for bargains.
"There seems to be a sense that people are waiting for a recovery rather than waiting for the end," says Dennis. "It's not just a collection of buildings. It will be a true community, a diverse, artistic place where you can live, play and stay.
"I think it will be the catalyst for the renaissance of Las Vegas."
That isn't just marketing talk. Vegas needs City Center to work
Last month, MGM started to fill 12,000 jobs and got 160,000 applications. The unemployment rate is 13.2 per cent, and there is a lot of hope invested in the project.
"This is my space shuttle mission, my moon shot, it doesn't get bigger than this," says Dennis. "This is the job of a lifetime and we've been entrusted to bring this home."
Less pay, more job security
Would you be willing to take a pay cut in exchange for a secure job? Stephanie Jenkins would.
Jenkins, 51, worked in the hospitality industry for over 25 years until she was laid off for the third time in 14 months. It was then that she decided it was time for a fresh start, in an industry that offered more job security.
"I feel like the hospitality industry abandoned me," Jenkins said.
With a background in hotel sales and marketing, Jenkins focused her search on healthcare because of recent reports of increased hiring there.
Even in the midst of the recession, employment in healthcare grew by 221,700 jobs since January. During the same period, hospitality lost 114,000 jobs, according to the Labor Department.
So Jenkins emphasized her strong sales experience and started targeting sales jobs in healthcare. Immediately, her job search reaped more results. "I started sending my résumé out and I got so much interest in that area," she said. Her background even worked in her favor, she explained. "Companies were interested in my outside sales experience."
Three interviews and one job offer later, Jenkins is now a community ambassador for Silverado Senior Living, an Alzheimer's community in Los Angeles. She uses her experience in sales to promote the senior living center to doctors and other health care providers. "I go out and create awareness and educate the health care community about the senior living center," she explained.
Jenkins says she makes about 25% less a year than at her previous position but after five months on the job she is "thriving." The best part is that she's no longer worried about getting laid off again. To Jenkins, that's worth more than the $20,000 paycut.
"One outweighs the other," she said.
Where the jobs are
For other job seekers ready to make a change, our career experts suggest looking for opportunities that suit them best, while also considering industries with growth potential.
With an aging population and greater demand for care, health services is certainly one of the areas that offers more opportunity for those looking for job stability.
"People should get clear on where their skills are most transferable and then reach out to their network," advised Kathy Robinson, the founder of TurningPoint, a career consulting firm in greater Boston.
50 Best Jobs in America
Like Jenkins, job seekers will have more luck making a switch by leveraging their skills when applying for jobs outside of their most recent experience. "An accountant could go find an accounting position in a hospital," Robinson suggested.
Other skill sets are also easily transferable. "There are certain roles that tend to transcend industries -- human resources, accounting, sales and marketing are all good examples of that," added Barbara Safani, president of Career Solvers in New York.
But for others hoping to switch gears, networking becomes even more important, Safani cautioned. Without as much experience as some of your competitors, it helps to have someone who can vouch for you, she said. "It becomes very important to find people to advocate on your behalf to break through any barriers you may face."
Source:http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/30/news/economy/hired_healthcare/?postversion=2009110211
Jenkins, 51, worked in the hospitality industry for over 25 years until she was laid off for the third time in 14 months. It was then that she decided it was time for a fresh start, in an industry that offered more job security.
"I feel like the hospitality industry abandoned me," Jenkins said.
With a background in hotel sales and marketing, Jenkins focused her search on healthcare because of recent reports of increased hiring there.
Even in the midst of the recession, employment in healthcare grew by 221,700 jobs since January. During the same period, hospitality lost 114,000 jobs, according to the Labor Department.
So Jenkins emphasized her strong sales experience and started targeting sales jobs in healthcare. Immediately, her job search reaped more results. "I started sending my résumé out and I got so much interest in that area," she said. Her background even worked in her favor, she explained. "Companies were interested in my outside sales experience."
Three interviews and one job offer later, Jenkins is now a community ambassador for Silverado Senior Living, an Alzheimer's community in Los Angeles. She uses her experience in sales to promote the senior living center to doctors and other health care providers. "I go out and create awareness and educate the health care community about the senior living center," she explained.
Jenkins says she makes about 25% less a year than at her previous position but after five months on the job she is "thriving." The best part is that she's no longer worried about getting laid off again. To Jenkins, that's worth more than the $20,000 paycut.
"One outweighs the other," she said.
Where the jobs are
For other job seekers ready to make a change, our career experts suggest looking for opportunities that suit them best, while also considering industries with growth potential.
With an aging population and greater demand for care, health services is certainly one of the areas that offers more opportunity for those looking for job stability.
"People should get clear on where their skills are most transferable and then reach out to their network," advised Kathy Robinson, the founder of TurningPoint, a career consulting firm in greater Boston.
50 Best Jobs in America
Like Jenkins, job seekers will have more luck making a switch by leveraging their skills when applying for jobs outside of their most recent experience. "An accountant could go find an accounting position in a hospital," Robinson suggested.
Other skill sets are also easily transferable. "There are certain roles that tend to transcend industries -- human resources, accounting, sales and marketing are all good examples of that," added Barbara Safani, president of Career Solvers in New York.
But for others hoping to switch gears, networking becomes even more important, Safani cautioned. Without as much experience as some of your competitors, it helps to have someone who can vouch for you, she said. "It becomes very important to find people to advocate on your behalf to break through any barriers you may face."
Source:http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/30/news/economy/hired_healthcare/?postversion=2009110211
Willis Tower looks to go green, from the rooftops on down
Growing up in the southwest suburbs, Sara Beardsley had a view of the Chicago skyline from her house. Today, she is transforming that skyline, but you won't find her work glorified on a $6 mug or gracing postcards.
Most of her impact is invisible as she attempts to reduce one of the largest carbon footprints in Chicago -- that of Willis Tower. Beardsley, a senior architect at Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture in Chicago, is managing a $200 million to $300 million project to "green" the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.
The building was completed as Sears Tower in 1973, the heyday of energy ignorance, which means the skyscraper has single-pane windows that leak around the edges and let in hot air in summer and cold in winter, lights everywhere and inefficient electric heating throughout.
"Each old window is like a car driving around," Beardsley said. "And people don't think of it that way -- it's just a window. But I think maybe we need to start thinking about it that way."
Buildings account for about 70 percent of all Chicago emissions, according to the Chicago Climate Action Plan. If the largest 10 buildings in the Loop were targeted for greening projects, Beardsley said, it would reduce the energy needs of the Loop by more than 10 percent.
In particular, mid-century buildings can average as much as double the energy load of modern buildings and 10 times that of the newest, most energy-efficient buildings, she said. Willis Tower uses enough electricity each year to power 9,000 Chicago homes, despite changes over the years that have reduced the energy load to about 1.5 times a new office building.
With a building as enormous as Willis Tower, the floor space of which is equivalent to 16 city blocks, a change in the direction of the sun can mean that when the temperature outside is 5 degrees, air conditioning is being pumped into one part of the building because so much heat is being collected from the sunlight while the side in shadow is being heated. An experimental green roof (greenery planted on a roof to lower energy costs and offset water runoff) on the 90th floor required metal meshing to prevent sod and plants from blowing away.
"The scale of this is mind numbing," said Nathan Kipnis, principal of Nathan Kipnis Architects Inc., a firm specializing in green and sustainable architecture. Kipnis was one of several curious architects and engineers who attended a presentation about the project (held on the 99th floor) originally meant for city docents but later expanded because of interest from the architectural community.
On its face, Kipnis said, greening a building like Willis is like greening any other building -- you look at what goes in and what comes out. But the complicating factors are magnified and the issues are unique.
"Just think of what it takes just to get the food up here," he said.
Since her youth, Beardsley has been fascinated by the world's tallest buildings.
"The skyline was like a compass that always showed me where I was in the city," she said. "When I learned the streets and how to get around, I also learned it visually by looking at the buildings from different angles. But it is surreal to be actually working on the Sears building years later, after seeing it as a part of the iconic skyline as I was growing up."
When Beardsley visits Willis Tower, she sees structure, piping, interacting climates, the competition of forces. Two weeks away from maternity leave, she still frequents the building to check details from basement to ceiling. It's rare, she said, for an architect to actually get to see her design as it comes to fruition.
When she strolls onto the roof of the 90th floor, she doesn't talk about the view -- she talks about the elevator decking, the pressure of the wind, the movement of the joints, the grooves that allow the window-washing equipment to move up and down the facade. When she watched "The Dark Knight," the thrill was the Chicago architecture scenes.
Beardsley considered structural engineering but landed at Illinois Institute of Technology's architectural program, and found her niche at the school's high-rise studios, where she was assigned to sketch downtown for inspiration.
She went on to work for Holabird & Root, designer of Soldier Field, collaborator on the designs for Tribune Tower and one of the oldest architectural firms in the city, as well as for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, one of the largest architectural firms in the world. In her 12 years working at architectural firms, she has worked on buildings from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to Chicago, including the new Trump International Hotel and Tower.
She joined Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill in 2007, one year after the firm was founded with five employees. Today the firm, which focuses on energy-efficient and sustainable architecture, has grown to more than 150 employees in Chicago and Dubai.
Beardsley has been traveling all over Chicago to present the greening project to everyone from university scholars to city docents, and her firm has been invited to present the project as far afield as China and South Korea. Willis Tower's owners originally approached Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill to design a zero-emissions hotel that is slated to stand about an alley's width from Willis Tower at the closest point. The architecture firm agreed to the project but also pitched the idea of first greening Willis Tower as a way to meet the energy needs of the proposed hotel "many, many times over." They expect to shore up Willis Tower's "skin" with new energy-efficient windows as soon as the last half of 2010. The hotel is still on the horizon.
So far, the only visible sign of what the owners hope to be an environmental model for the world is a pallet of dirt and sedum on the tower's 90th floor roof, the beginnings of a "green roof" so high that only mountain vegetation can grow there.
"As you can see, it's blooming," Beardsley said. "There are actually little lady bugs that come up there on the roof."
In design plans, the "green roof" project would be expanded to the building's multiple roofs, along with wind turbines and solar panels. But those rooftops would be more symbolic than anything else. The real energy savings will be culled from the 16,000 windows that will be replaced and from lighting automation and reduction.
The window project is estimated to be enough to cut heating needs by 50 percent and allow for new, smaller mechanical systems with a significantly lower environmental impact. A plumbing upgrade is expected to reduce water usage by 24 million gallons a year.
"It's enough to power hundreds of homes if you can just get people in Willis Tower to shut off their computers at night," Beardsley said.
All told, the project expects to reduce millions of pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, and while it is hard to calculate how that would affect the region, the idea is to inspire similar greening projects, Beardsley said, which would eventually lead to fewer coal plants needed to generate electricity for the grid.
The greening project is estimated to take 26 years to pay itself back and create jobs equivalent to that of a new 50-story building project, Beardsley said.
"It's no longer about building a building just for the prestige of building the tallest building in the world," said Charles Jackson, executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council in Springfield. "It's about 'How can we build the most sustainable building?' "
The council is awaiting word on half a million dollars in federal money that would help fund efforts to document the project, provide education to the tower's approximately 1.3 million visitors each year and advocate for further green building initiatives, he said.
For Willis' owners, the greening and modernization project, which follows a $22.5 million renovation, is part of a marketing strategy for the building, said Sundee Wislow, director of sustainability for U.S. Equities Realty, the management and leasing firm for the tower.
Willis Tower is seeking a combination of public and private financing for its greening project. Its owners are seeking private funding for the hotel. A spokeswoman for the building's owners, a real estate investment group, said funding is still being finalized and that she could not provide details.
"By the time it's done, the building won't really look that different," Beardsley said.
Beardsley will host her final presentation on the project at the University of Illinois at Chicago's Energy Symposium from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Nov. 10 at the Event Center of the UIC Forum.
The presentation is free and open to the public. Those wishing to attend are asked to RSVP on the UIC Liautaud Graduate School of Business's Web site at https://web.cba.uic.edu/Energy%20Symposium/Default.aspx.
Most of her impact is invisible as she attempts to reduce one of the largest carbon footprints in Chicago -- that of Willis Tower. Beardsley, a senior architect at Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture in Chicago, is managing a $200 million to $300 million project to "green" the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.
The building was completed as Sears Tower in 1973, the heyday of energy ignorance, which means the skyscraper has single-pane windows that leak around the edges and let in hot air in summer and cold in winter, lights everywhere and inefficient electric heating throughout.
"Each old window is like a car driving around," Beardsley said. "And people don't think of it that way -- it's just a window. But I think maybe we need to start thinking about it that way."
Buildings account for about 70 percent of all Chicago emissions, according to the Chicago Climate Action Plan. If the largest 10 buildings in the Loop were targeted for greening projects, Beardsley said, it would reduce the energy needs of the Loop by more than 10 percent.
In particular, mid-century buildings can average as much as double the energy load of modern buildings and 10 times that of the newest, most energy-efficient buildings, she said. Willis Tower uses enough electricity each year to power 9,000 Chicago homes, despite changes over the years that have reduced the energy load to about 1.5 times a new office building.
With a building as enormous as Willis Tower, the floor space of which is equivalent to 16 city blocks, a change in the direction of the sun can mean that when the temperature outside is 5 degrees, air conditioning is being pumped into one part of the building because so much heat is being collected from the sunlight while the side in shadow is being heated. An experimental green roof (greenery planted on a roof to lower energy costs and offset water runoff) on the 90th floor required metal meshing to prevent sod and plants from blowing away.
"The scale of this is mind numbing," said Nathan Kipnis, principal of Nathan Kipnis Architects Inc., a firm specializing in green and sustainable architecture. Kipnis was one of several curious architects and engineers who attended a presentation about the project (held on the 99th floor) originally meant for city docents but later expanded because of interest from the architectural community.
On its face, Kipnis said, greening a building like Willis is like greening any other building -- you look at what goes in and what comes out. But the complicating factors are magnified and the issues are unique.
"Just think of what it takes just to get the food up here," he said.
Since her youth, Beardsley has been fascinated by the world's tallest buildings.
"The skyline was like a compass that always showed me where I was in the city," she said. "When I learned the streets and how to get around, I also learned it visually by looking at the buildings from different angles. But it is surreal to be actually working on the Sears building years later, after seeing it as a part of the iconic skyline as I was growing up."
When Beardsley visits Willis Tower, she sees structure, piping, interacting climates, the competition of forces. Two weeks away from maternity leave, she still frequents the building to check details from basement to ceiling. It's rare, she said, for an architect to actually get to see her design as it comes to fruition.
When she strolls onto the roof of the 90th floor, she doesn't talk about the view -- she talks about the elevator decking, the pressure of the wind, the movement of the joints, the grooves that allow the window-washing equipment to move up and down the facade. When she watched "The Dark Knight," the thrill was the Chicago architecture scenes.
Beardsley considered structural engineering but landed at Illinois Institute of Technology's architectural program, and found her niche at the school's high-rise studios, where she was assigned to sketch downtown for inspiration.
She went on to work for Holabird & Root, designer of Soldier Field, collaborator on the designs for Tribune Tower and one of the oldest architectural firms in the city, as well as for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, one of the largest architectural firms in the world. In her 12 years working at architectural firms, she has worked on buildings from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to Chicago, including the new Trump International Hotel and Tower.
She joined Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill in 2007, one year after the firm was founded with five employees. Today the firm, which focuses on energy-efficient and sustainable architecture, has grown to more than 150 employees in Chicago and Dubai.
Beardsley has been traveling all over Chicago to present the greening project to everyone from university scholars to city docents, and her firm has been invited to present the project as far afield as China and South Korea. Willis Tower's owners originally approached Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill to design a zero-emissions hotel that is slated to stand about an alley's width from Willis Tower at the closest point. The architecture firm agreed to the project but also pitched the idea of first greening Willis Tower as a way to meet the energy needs of the proposed hotel "many, many times over." They expect to shore up Willis Tower's "skin" with new energy-efficient windows as soon as the last half of 2010. The hotel is still on the horizon.
So far, the only visible sign of what the owners hope to be an environmental model for the world is a pallet of dirt and sedum on the tower's 90th floor roof, the beginnings of a "green roof" so high that only mountain vegetation can grow there.
"As you can see, it's blooming," Beardsley said. "There are actually little lady bugs that come up there on the roof."
In design plans, the "green roof" project would be expanded to the building's multiple roofs, along with wind turbines and solar panels. But those rooftops would be more symbolic than anything else. The real energy savings will be culled from the 16,000 windows that will be replaced and from lighting automation and reduction.
The window project is estimated to be enough to cut heating needs by 50 percent and allow for new, smaller mechanical systems with a significantly lower environmental impact. A plumbing upgrade is expected to reduce water usage by 24 million gallons a year.
"It's enough to power hundreds of homes if you can just get people in Willis Tower to shut off their computers at night," Beardsley said.
All told, the project expects to reduce millions of pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, and while it is hard to calculate how that would affect the region, the idea is to inspire similar greening projects, Beardsley said, which would eventually lead to fewer coal plants needed to generate electricity for the grid.
The greening project is estimated to take 26 years to pay itself back and create jobs equivalent to that of a new 50-story building project, Beardsley said.
"It's no longer about building a building just for the prestige of building the tallest building in the world," said Charles Jackson, executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council in Springfield. "It's about 'How can we build the most sustainable building?' "
The council is awaiting word on half a million dollars in federal money that would help fund efforts to document the project, provide education to the tower's approximately 1.3 million visitors each year and advocate for further green building initiatives, he said.
For Willis' owners, the greening and modernization project, which follows a $22.5 million renovation, is part of a marketing strategy for the building, said Sundee Wislow, director of sustainability for U.S. Equities Realty, the management and leasing firm for the tower.
Willis Tower is seeking a combination of public and private financing for its greening project. Its owners are seeking private funding for the hotel. A spokeswoman for the building's owners, a real estate investment group, said funding is still being finalized and that she could not provide details.
"By the time it's done, the building won't really look that different," Beardsley said.
Beardsley will host her final presentation on the project at the University of Illinois at Chicago's Energy Symposium from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Nov. 10 at the Event Center of the UIC Forum.
The presentation is free and open to the public. Those wishing to attend are asked to RSVP on the UIC Liautaud Graduate School of Business's Web site at https://web.cba.uic.edu/Energy%20Symposium/Default.aspx.
John Q. Hammons Brings Exceptional to Town of Normal, Ill., with Opening of Marriott Bloomington - Normal Hotel and Conference Center
NORMAL, Ill. & SPRINGFIELD, Mo.--(Business Wire)--
Mr. John Q. Hammons announces the opening of his third hotel this year with the
debut of the nine-story, 230-room/suite Marriott Bloomington - Normal Hotel &
Conference Center (www.marriottnormal.com) in the revitalized Uptown Normal,
Ill. Located at 201 Broadway Avenue, the contemporary-designed hotel and
adjoining 40,000 gross square feet of meeting space created nearly 150 new jobs.
The luxury facilities are being managed by Springfield, Mo.-based John Q.
Hammons Hotels & Resorts, the nation`s leading independent builder, developer,
owner and manager of upscale, full-service hotels, resorts and suites
(www.jqhhotels.com). Sporting a whimsical, jewel-toned décor, the full-service
hotel is owned by world-renowned hotelier Mr. Hammons.
The Marriott Bloomington - Normal Hotel & Conference Center`s first guests were
Jan Miller and Adam Maurer, 2008 Volunteers of the Year for the Midwest Food
Bank(photos available). The locally headquartered charity supplies 600 service
organizations with food for 225,000 people each month and will be the
beneficiary of the hotel`s grand opening invitation-required masquerade ball
scheduled for Saturday, January 23, 2010. In addition, a ribbon-cutting/open
house with Normal and Bloomington city officials and the McLean County Chamber
of Commerce is slated for Thursday, November 12, 2010, from 4 to 6 p.m.
"Exceptional service is a pillar of the John Q. Hammons commitment to
excellence, making it especially fitting for our first guests to be outstanding
individuals celebrated for their exceptional service in the community," said
Jeff Pritts, general manager of the Marriott Bloomington - Normal Hotel &
Conference Center. "The opportunity to collaborate with Midwest Food Bank and be
the organization's first hotel supporter enables us to immediately be an active
member of the community, while supporting Marriott's nationwide program with
Feeding America to assist with domestic hunger relief."
The new Marriott Hotel and adjoining conference center represent one of the
first major capital improvement plans the Town of Normal has taken in nearly 20
years. The facilities connect to a 500-space parking deck via a
climate-controlled skywalk across Beaufort Street. The lavish property also
features personalized pod-style check-in, a 21-foot water feature, and more than
40 tons of granite in design finishes reflective of the focus on detail
indicative of a John Q. Hammons development. The Marriott Bloomington - Normal
Hotel & Conference Center also touts the area`s largest ballroom with guest
rooms and the city`s only hotel with a dedicated concierge floor offering a
private lounge and personalized guest services.
The Marriott Bloomington - Normal Hotel & Conference Center features flexible
meeting space to accommodate events up to 2,000 attendees and provides
professional catering and audio visual services on site. With more than $3
million in group and business pre-opening sales, hotel and conference center
reservations span interest from associations, corporations, universities and
community influencers, such as: American Institute of Architects - Illinois
Council; Bloomington - Normal Economic Development Council; Girl Scouts of
Central Illinois; Illinois Chapter of NECA; Illinois State University; and
Illinois Wesleyan University.
The hotel is offering special opening promotional packages at
www.marriottnormal.com/SpecialOffers.aspx, including:
* Date Night Package* $169 + tax/night: featuring an overnight stay and dinner
for two at Jesse`s Grille and two tickets, popcorn and sodas at the historic
Normal Theater attached to the hotel
* Family Time Package* $169 + tax/night: featuring overnight accommodations,
breakfast buffet for four in Jesse`s Grille, and four tickets to the Children`s
Discovery Museum
The new high quality facilities complement John Q. Hammons` other luxury
property in Illinois, the Embassy Suites East Peoria Hotel & Conference Center,
recently recognized as the number one Embassy Suites in the world.
Area Information & Demand Generators
The Marriott Bloomington - Normal Hotel & Conference Center is conveniently
located in the heart of Illinois at the junction of Interstates 55, 39 and 74
and just 2.5 hours from Chicago, St. Louis and Indianapolis. Strategically
located at the intersection of Fell Avenue and Beaufort Street, the facilities
are easily accessible from Illinois State University, home to more than 20,000
students and 3,000 faculty. An eclectic selection of dining, entertainment and
shopping destinations are also located in Uptown Normal. Guests are able to
conveniently experience the nearby Children`s Discovery Museum and historic
Normal Theater.
In conjunction with Bloomington (2.5 miles), the area`s major employers and
company headquarters, such as Bridgestone-Firestone Off-Road Tire Co.; Country
Financial; General Electric, Growmark, Inc.; Mitsubishi Motors of North America,
Inc.; State Farm Insurance; and Verizon Communications will serve as demand
generators for the facilities. A well-developed road, rail and air
transportation network also serves the Normal - Bloomington community, which
enhances the hotel and conference center`s accessibility and convenience.
Making a Reservation
For more information or to book a group function at the Marriott Bloomington -
Normal Hotel & Conference Center, contact (309) 862-9000, fax (309) 862-9001, or
go to www.marriottnormal.com. The hotel also can be booked under the following
GDS codes: Amadeus BMIMCM, Galileo 70173, Sabre 0057684, and Worldspan BMIMC.
Hotel Information
John Q. Hammons` Marriott Bloomington - Normal Hotel & Conference Center boasts
spacious rooms and suites featuring the signature Revive® Bedding Package.
Guests can start their day off right with their favorite coffees and pastries
from Caffeina`s Marketplace featuring Starbucks® Coffee, work up a sweat in the
complete fitness center with indoor pool, or stay productive with high-speed
wireless Internet access. Guests also have the option to dine in style in the
casual but elegant on-site Jesse`s Grille, featuring unique American cuisine
prepared by John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts` award-winning chef - Nicholas
Wichtner.
About Marriott
Visit Marriott International, Inc. (NYSE:MAR) for a company overview.
About John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts
Springfield, Mo.-based John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts is the nation`s leading
independent builder, developer, owner and manager of upscale, full-service
hotels, resorts and suites, including: Embassy Suites Hotels, Renaissance,
Marriott, Radisson, Residence Inn, Homewood Suites by Hilton, Holiday Inn and
Courtyard by Marriott brands. With 83 hotels strategically located near demand
generators, such as state capitals, universities, airports, corporate
headquarters or office parks in secondary and tertiary markets, John Q. Hammons
Hotels & Resorts` properties are dominant in their markets. Over the course of
his impressive 51-year career in the hotel business, Mr. John Q. Hammons has
developed 209 hotels. For more information about John Q. Hammons Hotels &
Resorts, please visit the company`s Web site at www.jqhhotels.com.
Editor`s Notes: Photos of hotel`s first guests are available on request.
*Special offers subject to availability and state and local laws.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available:
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6089057〈=en
John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts
Scott Tarwater, 417-873-3591
scott.tarwater@jqh.com
or
Publicis PR for John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts
Sheri Smith, 972-628-7766/214-454-3969
sheri.smith@publicis-pr.com
Source:http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS159402+02-Nov-2009+BW20091102
Mr. John Q. Hammons announces the opening of his third hotel this year with the
debut of the nine-story, 230-room/suite Marriott Bloomington - Normal Hotel &
Conference Center (www.marriottnormal.com) in the revitalized Uptown Normal,
Ill. Located at 201 Broadway Avenue, the contemporary-designed hotel and
adjoining 40,000 gross square feet of meeting space created nearly 150 new jobs.
The luxury facilities are being managed by Springfield, Mo.-based John Q.
Hammons Hotels & Resorts, the nation`s leading independent builder, developer,
owner and manager of upscale, full-service hotels, resorts and suites
(www.jqhhotels.com). Sporting a whimsical, jewel-toned décor, the full-service
hotel is owned by world-renowned hotelier Mr. Hammons.
The Marriott Bloomington - Normal Hotel & Conference Center`s first guests were
Jan Miller and Adam Maurer, 2008 Volunteers of the Year for the Midwest Food
Bank(photos available). The locally headquartered charity supplies 600 service
organizations with food for 225,000 people each month and will be the
beneficiary of the hotel`s grand opening invitation-required masquerade ball
scheduled for Saturday, January 23, 2010. In addition, a ribbon-cutting/open
house with Normal and Bloomington city officials and the McLean County Chamber
of Commerce is slated for Thursday, November 12, 2010, from 4 to 6 p.m.
"Exceptional service is a pillar of the John Q. Hammons commitment to
excellence, making it especially fitting for our first guests to be outstanding
individuals celebrated for their exceptional service in the community," said
Jeff Pritts, general manager of the Marriott Bloomington - Normal Hotel &
Conference Center. "The opportunity to collaborate with Midwest Food Bank and be
the organization's first hotel supporter enables us to immediately be an active
member of the community, while supporting Marriott's nationwide program with
Feeding America to assist with domestic hunger relief."
The new Marriott Hotel and adjoining conference center represent one of the
first major capital improvement plans the Town of Normal has taken in nearly 20
years. The facilities connect to a 500-space parking deck via a
climate-controlled skywalk across Beaufort Street. The lavish property also
features personalized pod-style check-in, a 21-foot water feature, and more than
40 tons of granite in design finishes reflective of the focus on detail
indicative of a John Q. Hammons development. The Marriott Bloomington - Normal
Hotel & Conference Center also touts the area`s largest ballroom with guest
rooms and the city`s only hotel with a dedicated concierge floor offering a
private lounge and personalized guest services.
The Marriott Bloomington - Normal Hotel & Conference Center features flexible
meeting space to accommodate events up to 2,000 attendees and provides
professional catering and audio visual services on site. With more than $3
million in group and business pre-opening sales, hotel and conference center
reservations span interest from associations, corporations, universities and
community influencers, such as: American Institute of Architects - Illinois
Council; Bloomington - Normal Economic Development Council; Girl Scouts of
Central Illinois; Illinois Chapter of NECA; Illinois State University; and
Illinois Wesleyan University.
The hotel is offering special opening promotional packages at
www.marriottnormal.com/SpecialOffers.aspx, including:
* Date Night Package* $169 + tax/night: featuring an overnight stay and dinner
for two at Jesse`s Grille and two tickets, popcorn and sodas at the historic
Normal Theater attached to the hotel
* Family Time Package* $169 + tax/night: featuring overnight accommodations,
breakfast buffet for four in Jesse`s Grille, and four tickets to the Children`s
Discovery Museum
The new high quality facilities complement John Q. Hammons` other luxury
property in Illinois, the Embassy Suites East Peoria Hotel & Conference Center,
recently recognized as the number one Embassy Suites in the world.
Area Information & Demand Generators
The Marriott Bloomington - Normal Hotel & Conference Center is conveniently
located in the heart of Illinois at the junction of Interstates 55, 39 and 74
and just 2.5 hours from Chicago, St. Louis and Indianapolis. Strategically
located at the intersection of Fell Avenue and Beaufort Street, the facilities
are easily accessible from Illinois State University, home to more than 20,000
students and 3,000 faculty. An eclectic selection of dining, entertainment and
shopping destinations are also located in Uptown Normal. Guests are able to
conveniently experience the nearby Children`s Discovery Museum and historic
Normal Theater.
In conjunction with Bloomington (2.5 miles), the area`s major employers and
company headquarters, such as Bridgestone-Firestone Off-Road Tire Co.; Country
Financial; General Electric, Growmark, Inc.; Mitsubishi Motors of North America,
Inc.; State Farm Insurance; and Verizon Communications will serve as demand
generators for the facilities. A well-developed road, rail and air
transportation network also serves the Normal - Bloomington community, which
enhances the hotel and conference center`s accessibility and convenience.
Making a Reservation
For more information or to book a group function at the Marriott Bloomington -
Normal Hotel & Conference Center, contact (309) 862-9000, fax (309) 862-9001, or
go to www.marriottnormal.com. The hotel also can be booked under the following
GDS codes: Amadeus BMIMCM, Galileo 70173, Sabre 0057684, and Worldspan BMIMC.
Hotel Information
John Q. Hammons` Marriott Bloomington - Normal Hotel & Conference Center boasts
spacious rooms and suites featuring the signature Revive® Bedding Package.
Guests can start their day off right with their favorite coffees and pastries
from Caffeina`s Marketplace featuring Starbucks® Coffee, work up a sweat in the
complete fitness center with indoor pool, or stay productive with high-speed
wireless Internet access. Guests also have the option to dine in style in the
casual but elegant on-site Jesse`s Grille, featuring unique American cuisine
prepared by John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts` award-winning chef - Nicholas
Wichtner.
About Marriott
Visit Marriott International, Inc. (NYSE:MAR) for a company overview.
About John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts
Springfield, Mo.-based John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts is the nation`s leading
independent builder, developer, owner and manager of upscale, full-service
hotels, resorts and suites, including: Embassy Suites Hotels, Renaissance,
Marriott, Radisson, Residence Inn, Homewood Suites by Hilton, Holiday Inn and
Courtyard by Marriott brands. With 83 hotels strategically located near demand
generators, such as state capitals, universities, airports, corporate
headquarters or office parks in secondary and tertiary markets, John Q. Hammons
Hotels & Resorts` properties are dominant in their markets. Over the course of
his impressive 51-year career in the hotel business, Mr. John Q. Hammons has
developed 209 hotels. For more information about John Q. Hammons Hotels &
Resorts, please visit the company`s Web site at www.jqhhotels.com.
Editor`s Notes: Photos of hotel`s first guests are available on request.
*Special offers subject to availability and state and local laws.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available:
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6089057〈=en
John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts
Scott Tarwater, 417-873-3591
scott.tarwater@jqh.com
or
Publicis PR for John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts
Sheri Smith, 972-628-7766/214-454-3969
sheri.smith@publicis-pr.com
Source:http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS159402+02-Nov-2009+BW20091102
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