Hilton Names Top Developers

Hampton, Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites Brands

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. October 14, 2008

BEVERLY HILLS, CA, March 12, 2007. Hilton Hotels Corporation recognized top developers and hotels during its Focused Service Brand Owners' Conference for Hampton Inn(R), Hampton Inn & Suites(R), Hilton Garden Inn(R) and Homewood Suites by Hilton(R), held in La Quinta, Calif., February 26-28, 2007. The conference was attended by more than 1,100 guests, including owners, brand teams and Hilton Hotels Corporation team members.

Each brand recognized a Developer of the Year, Best Conversion, Deal of the Year and Outstanding Achievement for the developers who had the greatest number of project approvals or who developed one or more unique hotels that helped enhance the brand's image in 2006. Together, the brands also recognized a Multi-Brand Developer of the Year who made significant contributions to the Hilton Family of Hotels with the most number of project approvals in 2006. To be considered, all hotels in the candidates' Hilton Family portfolio had to be rated high-quality and in good status, and could represent a combination of new projects, renovations and conversions.

The recipients of the Developer of the Year award are:

Multi-Brand Award Winner:

Sam Chang

McSam Hotel Group LLC

Two Hampton Inn hotels in Manhattan

Two Hilton Garden Inn hotels in Manhattan

One Doubletree in Manhattan

One Homewood Suites by Hilton in Hartford, Conn.

Hampton:

Neel Shah

Imperial Developments, LLC

Duluth, Ga.

Hampton Inn & Suites Scottsboro, Ala.

Hampton Inn Forsyth, Ga.

Hampton Inn & Suites Atlanta I-85 North/

Hamilton Mills, Ga.

Hilton Garden Inn:

Aleem M. Kassam

Legacy Hospitality, Inc.

Albuquerque, NM

Hilton Garden Inn Albuquerque Uptown, NM

Homewood Suites by Hilton:

Jay Shinn

Magnolia Lodging Development, LLC

Plano, Texas

Homewood Suites by Hilton Plano, Texas and Homewood Suites by Hilton Frisco, Texas

Hampton Inn, Hampton Inn & Suites, Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites by Hilton also presented awards for Deal of the Year and Best Conversion, which recognizes the tremendous commitment of time and effort many owners devoted to building a particular brand's hotel and converting an existing hotel to the particular brand.

The recipients of the Deal of the Year award are:

Hampton:

Jeffrey Lam

Lam Generation

New York, N.Y.

Hampton Inn Manhattan-SoHo

Hilton Garden Inn:

Steve Gupta

1406284 Ontario, Inc.

Vaughan, Ontario, Canada

Hilton Garden Inn Toronto Downtown, Ontario,

Canada

Homewood Suites by Hilton:

Mitchell Muroff

Sage Hotel Corporation

Boston, Massachusetts

Homewood Suites by Hilton Boston - Fenway Park, Massachusetts

The recipients of the Best Conversion award are:

Hampton:

James Karam

Norwood Hospitality, LLC

Fall River, Mass.

Hampton Inn Boston/Norwood

Hilton Garden Inn:

Al Patel

Baywood Hotels, Inc.

Greenbelt, MD

Hilton Garden Inn San Antonio Airport, Texas

Homewood Suites by Hilton:

Bharat Patel

Church Street Lodging Associates, LLP

Indianapolis, Indiana

Homewood Suites by Hilton Nashville - Downtown, Tennessee

In addition, each Hilton Family focused-service brand presented an Outstanding Achievement Award to recognize the due to the developer's support of Hilton and the focused-service brands of Hampton, Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites by Hilton. Each recipient is committed to growing the respective brands and the Hilton Family by investing in the development of new hotel projects.

The Outstanding Achievement award winners are:

Hampton:

Ronald R. Kendall

Buffalo Lodging Associates

Stoughton, Mass.

Hampton Inn Danbury, Conn.

Hampton Inn- Buffalo-Airport/Galleria Mall, N.Y.

Hilton Garden Inn:

Charles A. Mills, III

Sterling F. Webster, III

OBX Resort, LLC

Kitty Hawk, NC

Hilton Garden Inn Outer Banks/Kitty Hawk, NC

Hilton Garden Inn Kent Island, Md.

Homewood Suites by Hilton:

James Procaccianti

The Procaccianti Group

Cranston, Rhode Island

Homewood Suites by Hilton Providence - Downtown

"We are extremely pleased to present Sam Chang of McSam Hotel LLC with the Multi-Brand Developer of the Year award," said Bill Fortier, senior vice president - franchise development, Hilton Hotels Corporation. "The accolade represents our appreciation of his organization's exemplary commitment to excellence in hotel development, from design to post-opening."

Multi-Brand Developer of the Year

Sam Chang is founder and owner of McSam Hotel LLC and MikeSam Constructions Corp. With more than twenty years of experience in every facet of hotel development and renovation in the hotel industry, Chang has significant expertise in operations, development, construction, renovations and acquisitions. Chang has been involved in numerous development projects that include hotel, residential and commercial development in the New York Metropolitan area, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. McSam Hotel Group LLC is currently developing two Hilton Garden Inn hotels, two Hampton Inn hotels and one Doubletree in Manhattan. In Hartford, Conn., the company is developing a Homewood Suites Hotel.

Hampton Developer of the Year

Hampton Hotels presented the award for Developer of the Year to Imperial Developments, LLC. Since 1993, the Atlanta-based company has developed, opened and managed eight Hilton franchises. In 2006 alone the company was approved for three upcoming Hampton Inn projects-- the Hampton Inn Scottsboro, Ala., Hampton Inn Forsyth, Ala. and the Hampton Inn I-85 North, Ga. The company also has two Hilton Garden Inn properties under construction-the Hilton Garden Inn Atlanta Airport North, Ga. and the Hilton Garden Inn Columbia Northeast, S.C.

Hilton Garden Inn Developer of the Year

Hilton Garden Inn presented Legacy Hospitality Group, Inc., based in Albuquerque, NM with the Developer of the Year award. Aleem Kassam is the president and CEO of Legacy Hospitality Group, Inc., Faizel Kassam heads up construction and the company is financially managed by Mohamed Kassam. The company has grown from a small regional hotel owner/operator to a progressive and forward thinking hotel development company through the building and acquisition of properties domestically as well as expanding and growth internationally. Legacy Hospitality Group, Inc., owns 19 hotels in four different countries with four properties currently under development. In addition to its numerous developments of Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites by Hilton hotels, they look forward to developing additional Hilton Family hotel brands in the near future. At present, Legacy Hospitality Group, Inc., is developing a Hilton Garden Inn in Albuquerque, NM, which is scheduled to open in the 4th quarter of 2007 and will feature 150 rooms and 4,000 square feet of flexible meeting space.

Homewood Suites by Hilton Developer of the Year

Magnolia Lodging Development, LLC was recognized as Developer of the Year by Homewood Suites by Hilton. G. J. Shinn has owned, developed, and managed hotels since 1982. In 1998, he formed Magnolia Lodging, LLC with partners Wayne Newton and Matthew Newton to manage his hotels at a high level of performance. He is well known and respected by those in the industry, as evidenced by his long standing term on the Homewood Suites Advisory Council and various other industry leadership positions. His hotels have always been run in an outstanding fashion, and his many awards confirm this. In fact, in 2005, The Homewood Suites Plano/Richardson was ranked Top Hotel in the brand in 2005 and all 3 of his Homewood's were ranked in the top 10% of the brand, and thus received special recognition in the Homewood directory. He is currently involved with partners in a new development project, a 117 unit Homewood Suites in Frisco, Texas.