Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com
21 May 2008
Hospitality Lawyer on green hotel development. Here at www.HotelLawBlog.com, we have a rich library of articles on green hotel development. (Just go to the blog, search down the right hand side for “Topics” and then click on “Green Hotels.”). But as we now publish the DVDs from our recent conference on green hotels — which are free to all conference attendees — we thought many of our readers would like to see the major PowerPoint presentations from our high-powered speakers, so we have published them here for your benefit. You will not want to miss this series of important presentations! Here is Stefan Mühle’s slideshow on two successful case studies of developing and converting LEED-certified hotels.
Stefan Mühle is General Manager of The Orchard Garden Hotel in San Francisco where he assumed his duties in 2001. And in 2006, Stefan and his team opened the new $25 million Orchard Garden Hotel, sister property to the Orchard Hotel in San Francisco. These two hotels are two of San Francisco’s first LEED-EB (existing building) and LEED-NC (new construction) certified hotels.
Stefan says that Kermit got it wrong! Being green IS easy. Maybe Stefan just makes it look that way, but he is “raving fan” for building, converting and operating LEED-certified hotels. This is his PowerPoint presentation at The Hotel Developers Conference™ 2008, March 11-13, 2008 (see www.jmbm.com/thdc) providing a description of his two properties in San Francisco and some of the key facts about them. Stefan can be reached at smuhle@theorchardhotel.com or (415) 365-0306. See also www.theorchardhotels.com.
For the past five years, the Global Hospitality Group® of Jeffer Mangels Butler and Marmaro LLP has presented The Hotel Developers Conference™. Each year, this high level conference focuses on a current, cutting-edge issues such as resort development, condo hotels, and hotel mixed-use. In 2008, the conference, supported by UNLV and the USGBC, Nevada chapter, was devoted solely to green hotel development, renovation and operation.
Just as hotel prototypes evolve from Generation 1 (or “Gen 1”) to Generation 2 (“Gen 2”) and beyond, hotel conferences on sustainability to date (the “Gen 1” conferences) have typically included only a panel or two on sustainability — and have been limited to covering why the industry should consider going green, or what “green” really means. The Hotel Developers Conference™ 2008 set the standard for “Gen 2” of hotel conferences on sustainability.
What is a GREEN hotel really like? San Francisco’s Orchard Garden Hotel
LEED-certified hotels are still so unusual that many of us don’t really know what they are like. The Orchard Garden Inn is a full service hotel in San Francisco — the first — and it is pretty amazing with its design, history, art, local materials, and healthy environment. Here is one view of what a successful green hotel is all about.
Top 10 Green Hotel Initiatives — walking the walk
It is one thing to build a hotel to LEED standards, but operating in a sustainable way takes complete employee “buy in” according to Stefan Mühle — training employees and getting them to understand WHY they need to do things differently.
Here are the top 10 initiatives that San Francisco’s Orchard Garden Hotel implements from an operational standpoint.
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What are the economics and practicalities of building a green hotel?
We have a lot of material on green hotel building here at www.HotelLawBlog.com, particularly in the “Topic” of “Green Hotels” (scroll down the right hand side to the Topics and click on Green Hotels), but here is the point of view of Swinerton, Stefan Mühle’s contractor.
I like the entire presentation, but the last slide with the quote from Jerry Yudelson is profound:
“If you’re starting a new development project today, and you’re not making it as green as possible, it will be functionally obsolete the day it opens for business, and economically disadvantaged for its entire lifetime.”
– Jerry Yudelson
There is some very interesting data here.
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Stefan Mühle, Orchard Garden Hotel, at The Hotel Developers Conference™ 2008
The Orchard and Orchard Garden Hotels: Two successful case studies in green
Here is the complete version of Stefan’s presentation, of which only saw a portion at the Conference.
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Great case study. Thank you, Stefan!
JMBM’s Hotel Developers Conference
For the past five years, the Global Hospitality Group® of Jeffer Mangels Butler and Marmaro LLP has presented The Hotel Developers Conference™. Each year, this high level conference focuses on a current, cutting-edge issues such as resort development, condo hotels, and hotel mixed-use. In 2008, the conference, supported by UNLV and the USGBC, Nevada chapter, was devoted solely to green hotel development, renovation and operation.
Some of the great presentations from this series by the hospitality lawyers at JMBM include the following:
* Compelling economics of green hotels by Gary Golla – going LEED Silver with a luxury hotel only costs 1/4% premium and provides 30% ROI plus 28% savings on energy, water and sewage for life of building.
* Saving money by going LEED Platinum by Kip Richardson
* How to get LEED certification and make it pay (harvesting all the incentives) by Lynn Simon
* Beyond LEED: The Future of Sustainable Design by Kip Richardson
* The Orchards — Green Case studies in green hotel development and renovation by Stefan Mühle
* Demystifying LEED by Howard Wolff
* EPA Energy Star and other resources available to hotels by Stuart Brodsky
And there are many more valuable articles at www.HotelLawBlog.com, particularly under the Topic of “Green Hotels.”
This is Jim Butler, author of www.HotelLawBlog.com and hotel lawyer, signing off. We’ve done more than $87 billion of hotel transactions and more than 100 hotel mixed-used deals in the last 5 years alone. Who’s your hotel lawyer?
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Our Perspective. We represent developers, owners and lenders. We have helped our clients as business and legal advisors on more than $125 billion of hotel transactions, involving more than 4,700 properties all over the world. For more information, please contact Jim Butler at jbutler@jmbm.com or 310.201.3526.
Jim Butler is one of the top hospitality attorneys in the world. GOOGLE “hotel lawyer” or “hotel mixed-use” or “condo hotel lawyer” and you will see why.
Jim devotes 100% of his practice to hospitality, representing hotel owners, developers and lenders. Jim leads JMBM’s Global Hospitality Group® — a team of 50 seasoned professionals with more than $87 billion of hotel transactional experience, involving more than 3,900 properties located around the globe. In the last 5 years alone, Jim and his team have assisted clients with more than 100 hotel mixed-use projects — frequently integrated with energizing lifestyle elements.
Jim and his team are more than “just” great hotel lawyers. They are also hospitality consultants and business advisors. They are deal makers. They can help find the right operator or capital provider. They know who to call and how to reach them.
Jim is frequently quoted as an expert on hotel issues by national and industry publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Forbes, BusinessWeek, and Hotel Business. He is the Conference Chairman of The Hotel Developers Conference™ and Meet the Money®.
Contact him at jbutler@jmbm.com or 310.201.3526. For his views on current industry issues, visit www.HotelLawBlog.com.