25 April 2009
Hotel Lawyers with success stories on GREEN hotels. The hotel lawyers in JMBM’s Global Hospitality Group® are big believers in “green” hotels. Many industry friends continue asking for the DVDs and great presentation materials from last year’s Hotel Developers Conference on green hotel development. Most of these resources are available on www.HotelLawBlog.com under the “TOPIC” of Green Hotels. The events I am reporting on today build on the base of that knowledge and experience, and thus lead us to “Green Hotel economics 202.”
As many of you know, we believe that green building is the ECONOMICALLY prudent way to go. That is the entire thesis of my Cornell Hospitality Quarterly article entitled “The Compelling Hard Case for Green Hotel Development.”
Still, I was pleasantly surprised when two new items ended up on my desk this week. They are both further demonstration confirming the hard economic value of green development. The first item was the LEED Gold certification awarded to one of my favorite luxury hotels, Montage Beverly Hills under the direction of my friend, Ali Kasikci. The second was a new study published by two professors documenting a very strong economic premium in both rental and value (sales price) for green buildings based upon data from 553 green projects. The numbers may even amaze you (more than a 31% value premium). But that is a story for the next blog . . .