HHOA to Hold Hotel Investment Seminar

High Net-worth Latinos in Miami, June 26-27

• 
  SAVE
• 
  SHARE
• 
  TEXT SIZE
• 
  PRINT
• 
  COMMENT
• 
  PDF

. October 14, 2008

JUNE 14, 2007. The Hispanic Hotel Owners Association (HHOA), a recently-formed and rapidly growing non-profit organization, announced today that it will hold a Hotel Investment Seminar for Latinos at the JW Marriott Miami, June 26-27. The event is targeted to high net-worth Hispanics who may have an interest in investing in and profiting from the hotel industry. This is the first Hotel Investment Seminar to be held in Miami and the second the organization has conducted in the past six months.

"Hispanics are the largest and fastest growing minority group in the United States," said Ernesto de la Fe, managing director of Morgan Stanley, Miami and an HHOA board member. "Miami and Southern Florida has one of the largest concentrations of Latino wealth in the United States. Hispanics make up a sizeable portion of the hospitality industry workforce but own less than one percent of the hotels. These seminars are a major step to change that."

dela Fe noted that the hotel real estate and investment can appear daunting to an outsider. "Hotels arguably are one of the most complex of all real estate classes, but also one of the most profitable," he noted. "The goal of the Hotel Investment Series is to explain the basics of hotel ownership from site selection to franchising, hotel management to financing. This session is not a hard sell from hotel companies. Rather, it answers the basic questions about hotel ownership in a series of very low key, informative sessions."

Senior representatives from Hilton Hotels Corporation, Marriott International, InterContinental Hotels Group, Wyndham Worldwide Corporation, Global Hyatt Corporation and Choice Hotels International, as well as representatives from finance companies, management firms, law firms, industry consultants and others will provide an overview of the industry and the risks and opportunities. Representatives from Florida International University (FIU), School of Hospitality and Tourism Management will provide speakers and support for the event. FIU is the largest Hispanic student-serving organization in the United States. Hotel Business, a leading industry publication, also is sponsoring the event.

Sessions begin with an overview of the hotel industry and include such other topics as hotel development versus hotel acquisition; market, product and site selection; why invest in the hotel industry; hotel branding; and capital sources and financing. Other sessions will discuss franchising, hotel management, property valuation, hotel management and investment exit strategies.

"Since we began this series earlier his year, more than $120 million of investment in hotels by Hispanics in the U.S. has gotten underway," said Angela Gonzalez-Rowe, president and founder of Hispanic Hotel Owners Association. "Preliminary studies indicate that nearly 30,000 Hispanics living in the U.S. have the financial resources to invest in hotel ownership. And, Latin America is at the forefront of international expansion for the hotel industry. We will be expanding into that region in the near future. We believe that Hispanic hotel ownership will rise dramatically over the next decade."