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From Crain’s Chicago Business | Och-Ziff, a New York based investment firm, filed the leading bid in the bankruptcy auction of the Intercontintal O’Hare hotel. The $42 million bid represents a 77 percent discount on the cost to build it in 2008.
Get the full story: chicagobusiness.com
By Julie Wernau | At its first shareholders’ meeting as a public company Wednesday, Hyatt
Hotels Corp. faced protesters dressed as money-grubbing rats and dozens
of religious leaders who compared Hyatt’s labor practices to Pharaoh’s
enslavement of the Israelites.
The Chicago-based hotel chain, which is largely controlled by the
Pritzker family, went public in November and has been under fire by
government, religious and labor leaders since August when it fired 98
Hyatt housekeepers in Boston and replaced them with cheaper, outsourced
labor.
By Julie Wernau
| Hyatt Hotels Corp. said Monday that the hotel chain’s first annual meeting as a public company is closed to the media.
“Since we are a newly public company, this meeting is only open to
stockholders, which is not an uncommon practice,” said Farley Kern,
spokeswoman for Chicago-based Hyatt.
Dow Jones Newswires-Wall Street Journal | Pritzker family scion
John Pritzker is getting back into the hotel industry by buying a
majority stake in an operator of boutique hotels in California and
establishing a $150 million fund to buy additional small hotels.
Pritzker’s Geolo Capital on Friday bought a majority stake in Joie De
Vivre Hospitality Inc. at a price both sides declined to disclose.
Founded in 1987, Joie de Vivre manages 33 small, upscale hotels, 14 of
which it owns. Geolo’s majority stake, which is less than 60 percent,
includes only Joie De Vivre’s hotel-management operations and brand,
not the real estate.
By Ameet Sachdev |
Embassy Suites at 600 N. State St is scheduled to undergo a complete
renovation of all 367 rooms in the fourth quarter, the hotel’s new
management company said Thursday. Davidson Hotel Co. said the upgrade
will include bathrooms, corridors, lobby and public space. The cost of
the renovations was not disclosed.
Hyatt hotel worker Larry Prier, a cook with 26 years at the Hyatt, yells into a microphone as he and other workers picket outside of the Chicago hotel on Wednesday. (José M. Osorio/Tribune)
By Julie Wernau
| Henry Tamarin, president of Unite Here Local 1, stood on the steps of the Stetson’s Chop House this morning and told Hyatt Regency workers they would return to work for now, but to hold on to their picket signs just in case.
“We are in the midst of a struggle that we are not going to solve in a few hours this morning,” Tamarin said through a megaphone.
More than 300 workers at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago walked off the job earlier this morning in a spontaneous work stoppage, saying that the hotel’s management barred union representatives from entering the building for more than a week. Tamarin said hotel management has refused to deal with the union, and another union representative said the union’s demands have not been met. More demonstrations are planned for the future and negotiations are continuing.
By Serena Maria Daniels | The owner of a longtime improv theater in Wrigleyville told about 100 supporters Sunday night that she needs their help to fight a large hotel and residential development that she says threatens the future of her establishment.
A packed audience listened to pleas from iO Theater owner and director Charna Halpern and others as they described how a strip of Clark Street, a mainstay for Cubs fans to barhop after ballgames, will dramatically change if the complex is built at Clark and Addison streets.
Associated Press | Radisson is writing one of the biggest checks
in company history for 18 floors in downtown Chicago’s Aqua Tower
high-rise. Carlson Hotels Worldwide announced Wednesday it would spend
$125 million on the first American property in its upscale Radisson Blu
line.
It’s one of the most expensive purchases in a busy shopping season for
hotel investors searching for distressed properties. But credits
markets are still so tight Carlson is paying half upfront in cash.
From CBS Ch. 2 Chicago | Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) said he backs a proposal for a mixed commercial and residential development at Clark and Addison streets, across from Wrigley Field, that would include a 137-room Hyatt Hotel and 135 residential units.
Get the full story: cbs2chicago.com
By Blair Kamin
| The developer of Aqua, the boldly undulating Chicago tower that has garnered architectural acclaim, looks to be on the verge of filling a major economic gap inside the 82-story skyscraper.
Jim Loewenberg, the tower’s developer and architect of record, said this morning that a hotel has signed a deal to occupy Aqua’s hotel floors. An announcement will be made by the end of this week or early next week, he said.
Get the full story: Cityscapes.
From Crain’s Real Estate | Chicago-based Strategic Hotels announced Monday that it plans to raise at least $200 million in a secondary stock offering.
Get the full story: chicagorealestatedaily.com.
Dow Jones Newswires | Hyatt Hotels Corp. posted a surprise
profit in the first quarter, though earnings fell 64 percent as the
hotelier benefited from an $8 million settlement and the company was
the latest to report signs of a travel and tourism industry rebound.
President and Chief Executive Mark Hoplamazian said room rates remain
under pressure, but the company is encouraged by year-to-year occupancy
increases in most of its markets. Group bookings also have begun to
rise, but continue to have limited visibility owing to short lead times
and smaller bookings.
New lobby of the Ritz-Carlton Chicago. (Handout)
By Julie Wernau |
The Ritz-Carlton Chicago is unveiling a $25 million renovation today at
its Four Seasons Hotel at Water Tower Place that includes a new
restaurant and bar, new presidential suite that includes daily in-room
massages and an updated promenade, ballroom and lobby.
The renovation included few structural changes and focused on updating
the decor of the 435-room hotel, which has been ranked one of the best
hotels in the world by Travel + Leisure.
By Becky Yerak
| During times of economic stress, consumers apparently hit the bars more
and patronize hotels, full-service restaurants and new-car dealers less
frequently.
Sageworks Inc., which analyzes financial data of privately held
businesses, examined six indulgence industries and found that only one –
bars — had an uptick in sales in 2009 on average.
They were up 4.1 percent, Sageworks said.
By Mary Ellen Podmolik | Falling property values in Cook County have put about nearly a third multi-family mortgage buildings in danger of default on their mortgages with owners of two-to-six unit rental buildings are particularly at risk, new data shows.
A study by DePaul University’s Institute for Housing Studies, released Wednesday, also found that $3 billion of multi-family building mortgages already are in foreclosure, affecting more than 32,000 rental units in Cook County.That compares with approximately 38,000 single-family homes in foreclosure in Cook County. Another $12.6 billion ib multi-family mortgages are at risk, the group predicted.
