FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA.—Greater Fort Lauderdale officials have named Hilton the winner in a competitive field of hoteliers seeking to build a 1,000-room anchor hotel for the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center. Scheduled to be built on the northern edge of Port Everglades adjacent to the 600,000-square-foot convention center, the much-anticipated property will be Greater Fort Lauderdale’s largest hotel and increase its attractiveness as a destination for large conferences, trade shows and other events. The hotel is scheduled to open in 2012. The Broward Convention Center hosts approximately 280 events per year, and the new hotel is seen as...

PHILADELPHIA—ARAMARK, a professional services organization and leading concessionaire of parks, resorts and hospitality services, has helped secure a $1 million grant to the National Park Foundation as the initial and lead sponsor of the Foundation’s newly unveiled First Bloom project. First Bloom was created in conjunction with the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, for children to participate in hands-on natural resource protection activities in national parks. The First Bloom project, honoring the work of Lady Bird Johnson, was launched by the National Park Foundation and Honorary Chair, Mrs. Laura Bush. The donation is the first investment in the First Bloom...

NEW YORK—The International Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show may have seen its greenest collection of products in its history, as this year’s collection of exhibitors featured everything from towels with organic cotton and bamboo blends to touch-activated faucet systems that allow one to choose hot, warm or cold water with the touch of a button. Environmental concern was evident in exhibitor booth marketing as well, as vendors used green themes to catch attendees’ attention. The following are just some of the product announcement highlights from the show this past week. HD Supply rolled out its ideallygreen campaign, which emphasizes the environmental...

DUBAI, U.A.E.—The Grand Hyatt Dubai has converted its main water heating system from diesel oil-fired to solar powered in a bid to reduce climate change and running costs. With the UAE’s carbon footprint spiraling, causing the country to be one of the largest emitters of carbon dioxide per capita in the world, the Grand Hyatt Dubai’s new solar panel heating system will reduce its own emissions dramatically. “This is the first commercial installation of its kind in the U.A.E., and probably the largest in the whole of Europe, the Middle East and Africa,” says Phil Barnett, Grand Hyatt Dubai’s director...

BALTIMORE—The term “groundbreaking” took on double meaning earlier this week when J.W. (Bill) Marriott, Jr., chairman and CEO of Marriott International, Inc. picked up a shovel to herald the construction start of the new, 154-room Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott-Inner Harbor at Historic Brewers’ Park. The hotel is slated to open in the spring of 2009. The first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified hotel in Baltimore and one of several green Marriott hotels planned for LEED certification company-wide over the next five years, the hotel’s three-pronged ownership includes minority-owned A&R Development, a division of A&R Companies of...

DENVER—Xanterra Parks & Resorts announced that it will install one of the largest solar photovoltaic (PV) energy systems in the country—and the largest system in the U.S. tourism industry—in Death Valley National Park, the sunniest place in the country. The one megawatt (MW) system will harness the sun’s energy to generate more than one-third of the annual electricity needs for Xanterra’s operations there, comprised of the Furnace Creek Inn, Ranch, golf course and employee offices and housing. Xanterra’s system in Death Valley will be one of the largest privately owned PV energy systems in the country, and easily the largest...

NEW YORK—Industry experts chimed in on the state of the lodging industry and panel discussions provided valuable insights into green building design and operations at this year’s International Hotel/Motel & Restaurant show held at New York’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. The event wrapped up on Tuesday, November 13. The lodging industry had a good year in 2006, said Mark V. Lomanno, president of Smith Travel Research, with 75,000 new hotel rooms added to U.S. inventory (net growth of 10,000 rooms). There are currently 200,000 hotel rooms under construction. The luxury and mid-scale without food and beverage segments are experiencing...

CHICAGO—Architects, designers and end users will now have one Standard to identify carpets that have a reduced environmental impact. The first multi-attribute American National Standards Institute (ANSI)-approved Standard—NSF 140-2007, Sustainable Carpet Assessment Standard for environmentally preferable building materials—was introduced at Greenbuild 2007. The unified Standard for sustainable carpet is voluntary, inclusive, based on life cycle assessment (LCA) principles, and offers three levels of achievement for attaining various levels of reduced environmental impact (silver, gold and platinum). By defining environmental, social and economic performance requirements, the Standard provides benchmarks for continual improvement and innovation within the building industry. “The Standard provides enormous...

NEW YORK—Ten exhibitors were honored with Editors’ Choice Awards during the Opening Ceremonies of the 92nd annual International Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show (IH/M&RS), Sunday, November 11, at New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. This year, the awards program was expanded to include a green equivalent to each of the competition’s five traditional categories of décor, essentials, luxury, restaurant and technology. From the 10 winners, the Kenneth F. Hine “Best of Show” Award was selected. The 2007 IH/M&RS Editors’ Choice Award winners are: Kenneth F. Hine “Best of Show”—INNCOM International (Niantic, Conn.) for the e4 Smart Digital Thermostat with ecoMODE,...

CHICAGO—For hotel developers in search of everything necessary to build smart, high performance buildings, Greenbuild was the place to be this week. Approximately 850 vendors offering everything from environmentally friendly cinder block to roofing materials to carpeting were on hand. The event, sponsored by the U.S. Green Building Council, was held here in Chicago at McCormick Place. Here are just a few of the vendor announcement highlights: • As a part of its continued commitment to sustainable practices, Osram Sylvania announced its participation in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Leaders program. By participating in Climate Leaders, Sylvania has pledged...