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Tuesday, February 14, 2012
8:00am - 9:30am

The Harvard Club
35 W. 44th Street (between Fifth & Sixth Avenues)
New York, NY 10036

The New York City Hotel Investment Market: Trends & 2012 Outlook

The New York City hotel market has made press headlines - "Record Levels of New Hotels Coming into the Market", "Rapid Recovery from the Recent Downturn", "The Top Performing US Hotel Market", "Acquisition Prices Approaching Previous Peak Levels," "Surging Tourism". Come hear the stories behind the headlines.

WX has assembled an all-star panel of hotel industry experts who will share their perspectives on what makes the New York City hotel market such a hotbed of interest to investors, lenders and hotel operators alike, and what they see as the opportunities and challenges for 2012.

Moderator:

Cheryl Boyer, President
Lodging Advisors
Cheryl Boyer is President of Lodging Advisors, a firm dedicated to providing high-quality counseling services to institutional investors, lenders, and other key players in the hotel industry. Founded in 2004, clients include Delaware North Companies, Prudential Real Estate Investors, Aegon USA Real Advisors, Apollo Global Real Estate, National Park Service and others.

Cheryl has over 20 years of experience in hospitality-related consulting, appraisal and finance. Cheryl is member of the Appraisal Institute (MAI). She is also a member of the Lodging Industry Investment Council, Vice President of WX New York Women Executives in Real Estate, a founding member of the Women’s Hospitality Investment Network, a member of the International Society of Hospitality Consultants, a member of Hospitality Asset Managers Association, Regional Vice President of the Cornell Hotel Society, and a member of the President’s Council of Cornell Women.

Panelists:

Ellen Brown, Executive Vice President of Acquisitions and Development
Denihan Hospitality Group
As Executive Vice President of Acquisitions and Development at Denihan Hospitality Group, Ellen Brown oversees hotel development, property acquisitions, management contracts, and retail leasing. During her 13 years with Denihan, Ellen has leveraged her hotel acquisition and development experience to direct numerous pivotal transactions, including the company’s 2006 $500 million recapitalization and Denihan’s recent $910 million joint venture with Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (NYSE:PEB) for six of Denihan’s assets in Manhattan., She also directed numerous high profile, profitable transactions that led to the company’s 2008 acquisition of The James brand, and Denihan’s expansion into Chicago, Washington DC and Miami. Today, Ellen continues to shape Denihan’s growth as she seeks out new opportunities to expand Denihan’s portfolio of luxury and upper-upscale boutique hotel properties in key U.S. urban markets.

Prior to joining Denihan, Ellen was a manager in Coopers & Lybrand’s National Hospitality Practice, where she oversaw the NYC Group and directed major hotel portfolio acquisitions totaling more than $3 billion. She also served as an assistant vice president of Landauer Real Estate Counselor’s Hospitality Practice, and as senior consultant in Laventhol & Horwarth’s Hospitality Management Advisory Services Group.


Cia Buckely, Partner
Dune Real Estate Partners
Cia Buckley has been an active participant in commercial real estate investment for over twenty years. Her leadership in the industry was recognized last year by PERE/Wire when she was named one of the ten most influential women in real estate private equity globally. Cia has had a remarkable career — from her early days working on the Trump restructuring at Bankers Trust to today where she is a Managing Director and Principal of Dune, a Partner of Dune Real Estate Partners and a member of the Dune Real Estate Investment Committee. Prior to joining Dune, Cia was the President of the U.S. Fund business for JER Partners, an affiliate of the J.E. Robert Companies. Cia has been a strong role model for women pursuing careers in real estate, generously providing her time as mentor, career counselor and friend.

Thomas McConnell, Senior Managing Director
Cushman & Wakefield Sonnenblick Goldman
Thomas P. McConnell is a senior managing director of the Hotel Transactions Group. He specializes in hotel real estate transaction advisory, brokerage, investment advisory, asset management and other related services. Mr. McConnell's experience in the hospitality industry spans two decades, and he has held advisory and consulting roles in numerous market and economic analyses of hotel investments, valuation, management contracts, finance and hotel company transactions.

Over his 20-year career, Mr. McConnell has been involved in numerous hotel transaction and consulting engagements related to investment advisory, finance and refinance, operational consulting, workout consulting and brokerage. He has worked with virtually all of the major, international hotel companies including Four Seasons, Hilton, Starwood and Marriott. He also counts various Wall Street firms and investors as clients, including Credit Suisse First Boston, UBS, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase and others.

David J. Tarr, Senior Vice President of Real Estate and Development
Hyatt Hotels Corporation
David Tarr was appointed Senior Vice President of Real Estate and Development for Hyatt Hotels Corporation in September 2007. He is responsible for overseeing new hotel development, acquisition, franchise and management contract transactions for Hyatt’s full-service brands (Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Grand Hyatt, Park Hyatt, and Andaz) in North America.

Prior to joining Hyatt, David’s 10-year career at Marriott International included a variety of Development and Asset Management positions. He was most recently Senior Vice President of Development, overseeing Marriott’s full-service hotel development activity in the Eastern Region of the United States for its Marriott, Renaissance and Ritz-Carlton hotel brands.