MIAMI BEACH, FL— Attendees gathered for the Sixth Annual International Multicultural Tourism/Hotel-Ownership Summit & Trade Show here can be forgiven if they come away with the idea there are very few things David Schwartz, managing principal of The Management Consortium, doesn’t know about getting started in the hotel investment, development and ownership business. Called on to do some serious “multi-tasking” as a participant in several educational sessions and informational forums, Schwartz proved he was particularly prepared to field questions and solve problems during the course of a presentation exploring How To Create A Hotel Development Team. In fact, a special handout he created served as a veritable outline for discussion among that session’s players. Joining Schwartz to expound on his avowed “five phases of the project lifecycle— acquisition, design, construction, operations and exit strategy— were HVS International Managing Director John Lancet Goldstein & Loots Attorney Jeff Goldstein. Together, the trio suggested a solid appreciation of the risk faced by anyone contemplating hotel development— and ways in which to mitigate that risk— serves as the overriding factor impacting any decision-making in this arena. As explained, those risks (perceived and otherwise) were said to be present well before the first steps are taken along the hotel-development path. Other sessions vying for local-area input from Schwartz during the course of the multi-day meeting attuned to the needs of African-American lodging entrepreneurs and investors included one examining the extended-stay segment of the industry as well as another relating to the ABCs Of Hotel Financing. —Michael Billig
