Hilton Worldwide Announces Annual North American Hotel Development Award Winners The winners, selected by Hilton Worldwide, uphold the company's standards of excellence in renovation, conversion, development, project management, community impact and investments
BigTravelNews.info - Jul 24,2010 - Hilton Worldwide announced the recipients of the company's annual hotel development awards for North America in five distinct categories: Lifetime Achievement, Developer of the Year, Best Conversion, Deal of the Year and Outstanding Achievement. The winners, selected by Hilton Worldwide, uphold the company's standards of excellence in renovation, conversion, development, project management, community impact and investments. Recognizing achievement for 2009, the hotel development awards are presented across the company's portfolio of hotel brands, including Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, Conrad Hotels & Resorts, Hilton Hotels, Doubletree, Embassy Suites Hotels, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Hotels, Homewood Suites by Hilton and Home2 Suites by Hilton.
"Our hotel owners are a vital part of our company's development success. In the last year alone, Hilton Worldwide opened more than 300 new properties and successfully launched the Home2 Suites brand, which broke ground on its first property in December," said Bill Fortier, Senior Vice President, Development, Hilton Worldwide. "We are proud to recognize the success and achievements of our top hotel developers, whose vision for design and development represents the light and warmth of hospitality we are committed to delivering to our valued guests."
The success of the Hilton Worldwide portfolio, which consists of ten hotel brands with more than 3,600 hotels in 81 countries, begins with the development of quality properties. The following hotel developers and properties have been awarded the top recognition by Hilton Worldwide for producing premier quality hotels in 2009:
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
* P.C. Amin of Shamin Hotels was awarded with the Lifetime Achievement Award for opening multiple Hilton brand properties over the years, including most recently the Hilton Richmond in 2009 (Va.)
DEVELOPER OF THE YEAR
* Multi-Brand: John Tampa and Nash Patel, Ascent Hospitality for multiple Hilton, Hampton Hotels and Embassy Suites properties
* Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts: Eric Seigel, GEM Realty for Waldorf Astoria Orlando at Bonnet Creek, Fla.; The Waldorf Astoria Orlando, combined with Hilton Bonnet Creek also won Deal of the Year at Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS) in 2010 (Fla.)
* Hilton: Ira Mitzner, RIDA Development Corporation and Lee Neibart and John Jacobsson, AREA Property Partners for Hilton Orlando at Orange County Convention Center (Fla.)
* Doubletree: Richmond S. McCoy, Urban America, LP for Doubletree Resort Orlando International Drive (Fla.)
* Embassy Suites: Bharat Patel, Sun Development & Management Corporation for Embassy Suites Palmdale (Calif.)
* Hilton Garden Inn: Honore Aschaffenburg, HRI Properties for Hilton Garden Inn Richmond Downtown & Hilton Garden Inn Jackson Downtown (Fla.)
* Hampton Hotels: Jim O'Connell, Capri, Inc. for Hampton Inn & Suites Walla Walla (Wash.)
* Homewood Suites in Conjunction with Hilton Garden Inn: Kenneth O'Steen, The Landcom Companies and San Marco Hotel Partners for Homewood Suites Jacksonville by Hilton Downtown-Southbank (Fla.)
* Home2 Suites: Amit Patel, Baywood Hotels for Home2 Suites by Hilton Baltimore White Marsh (Md.)
BEST CONVERSION
* Waldorf Astoria: Sam Friedman, Dimension Development Company for The Roosevelt New Orleans (La.)
* Hilton: Siahou Sitton, Inmobiliaria Interpres S.A. de C.V. for Hilton Mexico City Reforma
