SAN FRANCISCO— With the hotel business in the doldrums, the Kimpton Group’s new chairman and chief executive, Tom LaTour, is launching a major expansion plan that includes an emergence into resort development, reported the San Francisco Chronicle. “Sometimes I think, ‘What would Bill do in this situation?’” LaTour said recently, referring to the late Bill Kimpton, the San Francisco hospitality companys founder. LaTour, the 57-year-old executive who has spent his entire career in the hotel business, took over the company in April after the death of the flamboyant Kimpton. Now, as the company regains its footing, LaTour has launched traditionally urban-oriented Kimpton on an aggressive hotel expansion program. “We want a Kimpton hotel in every major American city, backed up by a resort opportunity,” LaTour told the Chronicle. This year, LaTour said Kimpton expects the expansion of its hotel portfolio will spur a 10% growth in revenue, despite signs pointing to disappointing results for the industry at large. The companys list of new developments includes several projects in Washington, D.C., where the company is building a 172-room hotel in the Tariff Building on E Street, and restyling four formerly budget hotels into Kimpton boutique products. Kimpton is also about to open a 250-room hotel in a converted Masonic temple in New Orleans. Its newest Bay Area holding is the 224- room Cypress in Cupertino, which is under construction and scheduled to open in September 2002. In San Francisco, the company is set to turn the historic Haslett Warehouse at Fishermans Wharf into a hotel, with an opening scheduled next summer. SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle
