MIAMI—A wealth of hospitality-focused movers and shakers were on hand here recently for the 20th annual International African American Hotel Ownership/Multicultural Tourism Summit and Trade Show. The event was sponsored by the National Association of Black Hotel Owners, Operators & Developers (NABHOOD).
Upwards of 400 owners, developers, investors, hotel franchise company executives, municipal and state representatives, and entrepreneurs eager to understand what it takes to be successful in the lodging space came together at the Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay for three days of informational sessions, workshops and panels targeting industry trends and issues of interest.
“We’re getting a lot of people who are interested in hotel ownership,” said Andy Ingraham, founder, president and CEO of NABHOOD. “The market has changed a lot in terms of people’s interests. Now they have more education about the industry, so in addition to getting folks who are developers and owners, we’re getting a lot of people who have an interest in investing in the hotel space.”
Also participating were a number of students—NABHOOD provides scholarship opportunities—from a variety of colleges and universities. They were able to tap into several workshops and networking events, perhaps getting a glimpse of what the future holds.
NABHOOD Board member Norman Jenkins, president/Capstone Development, LLC, noted the participation by students—some 60 strong this year—is very encouraging.
“They represented 14 schools, and that included Ivy League schools, HBCUs [historically black colleges and universities]and international schools. So instead of these bright students and professionals sort of stumbling into the industry, we’re having more students who are deliberately focusing on hotel ownership, hotel investing, financing hotels, treasury functions, operations; you name it. That’s another dimension to the conference that was not there before,” said Jenkins.
Discussing current industry issues at NABHOO (from left): Bill Fortier, SVP/Development-Americas, Hilton Worldwide; NABHOOD Board member Norman Jenkins, president/Capstone Development LLC; Julius Robinson, VP/Autograph Collection, Marriott International; Bharat Patel, chairman/AAHOA; and Wolfram Schaefer, President/CEO, Avendra, LLC.
Reaching for future goals has been a long-standing expression of NABHOOD, which as an organization over the years, cited 500 African-American-owned hotels as a milestone to be achieved. Today, said Ingraham, there are 753, reinforcing the need for second- and next-generation involvement in the industry, from ownership to the supply side.
“We’ve seen more college-age kids attending these conferences—I bring my own children. AAHOA (Asian American Hotel Owners Association) is a great model and we think that’s going to be the key to changing the tide in how this industry’s perceived in our community,” said Jenkins.
“One of the first women owners at Marriott was Deanne Ayers-Howard [of Howard Hospitality]and today, her son [LeRoy Howard II], who was in high school when she got into the hotel business, is now an executive at Host Hotels & Resorts,” noted Ingraham, who seeks greater participation among minorities ahead.
“What is critical to us is we see the shrinkage of diverse executives in the hotel industry and our goal is simply not only to build a new group of diverse hotel owners, but also to create, through these college-student programs that we have endeavored upon, a whole diverse group of folks, from executives to investors to owners to people who just work in the hotel space, period. Our goal for bringing these students in is achieving that,” said Ingraham.
In addition to building traction with students, the Summit was geared to presenting hotel-space opportunities to those who might be investors/owners in other franchise industries, e.g., McDonald’s or linked independents, e.g., car dealerships.
Noting such entrepreneurs often look to expand their portfolio holdings, Ingraham said, “As people become aware of the opportunities and the way the market performs in the hotel sector, that continues to grow; we’re going to help that.”
Toward this, NABHOOD is doing more workshops around the country with brand partners to educate such entrepreneurs about the hotel space. The organization recently conducted an event in Cleveland at the annual conference of the Airport Minority Advisory Council about “The ABCs of Hotel Ownership,” a key session topic at the recent Summit.
NABHOOD board member Norman Jenkins, president, Capstone Development LLC, is flanked by Bill Fortier (left), SVP/development-Americas, Hilton Worldwide and Julius Robinson, VP/autograph collection, Marriott International, look on.
Other topics in the spotlight at NABHOOD this year included an industry outlook presented by R. Mark Woodworth, senior managing director of CBRE Hotels Americas Research; updates from Brand USA and AH&LA; insights into hotel financing, feasibility and marketing studies; public/private partnerships; hotel development and ownership; franchising and membership groups; working with minority vendors; buying and selling hotels; and special programs geared toward the Caribbean hotel market and its opportunities, notably for small properties and B&Bs.
The Prime Minister of The Bahamas, Perry G. Christie, served as the keynote speaker at NABHOOD’s luncheon, which was sponsored by Hilton Worldwide. Talk outside the sessions skewed toward capitalizing projects and how to get a deal done, noted Jenkins.
“And that’s the beauty of NABHOOD,” he added. “These meetings outside the conference find people saying: ‘Hey, I know somebody’ or ‘I have an interest in this. Here’s how we may be able to help.’ So a lot of: ‘I’ve got part of the puzzle solved, but I need some help with the other side.’”
Jenkins, who was a long-term executive at Marriott International, is well-versed in what it takes to do a deal. Two years ago, with Quadrangle Development and a sovereign wealth fund, Capstone brought out of the ground a $520 million, 1,175-key Marriott Marquis connected to the Washington Convention Center and those at the Summit looked to him for advice.
“I was busy from early in the morning until late at night, sometimes just listening, sometimes offering advice. A couple of years ago I got some deals out of a conference,” Jenkins recalled, noting he’s seeing a greater level of sophistication in who attends the Summit.
He added the NABHOOD Deal of the Year went to Evens Charles, president/CEO/owner of Frontier Development & Hospitality Group for the renovation and repositioning of a Radisson to the DoubleTree by Hilton, Largo/Washington, DC, in Prince George’s County, MD.
Similarly, Ingraham suggested part of “the beauty of the industry” is that individuals can find opportunity for themselves in helping to “not only improve the economic condition through the hotel sector or diversify their current investments, but for us as a group, for NABHOOD, we understand the overall growth that’s possible. As the economy improves, more people travel, rates go up and therefore it becomes a great time to invest. But we’ve added another element… Minorities spend some $90 billion in travel annually and a huge portion of that is spent on the lodging sector. We’ve gone a step further and said to numerous organizations: Come and stay at our hotels.”
As to what’s ahead, Ingraham said, “Our goal is to simply be better, increase our numbers, to do more than we did in our previous year because we have got a long way to go. We want to have a significant ownership role in this industry based on the way the population of this country is, based on the way the market is going, based on the opportunities that are there. And today, it is a good time to be in the hotel space.” HB
