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Florida On a Roll with Record Visitors for 2013 & Universal Orlando Hiring 3,500 for Expansion
February 15, 2014
Feb. 15--Universal Orlando plans to add nearly 3,500 jobs this year as it prepares for an expected surge of business from the opening of Wizarding World of Harry Potter -- Diagon Alley, Gov. Rick Scott and resort officials announced Friday. Scott, who appeared with Universal executives and local elected officials at the entrance to Diagon Alley inside Universal Studios Florida, also used the occasion to reveal that Florida drew an estimated 94.7 million visitors last year, up 3.5 percent from 2012 and a new state record. It was Florida's third consecutive year of record visitation. The number of jobs in Florida directly tied to tourism
MDM Development Changes Tack; Refers to Prehistoric Tequesta Site in Downtown Miami as “Hokum”
February 14, 2014
Feb. 14--Sharply changing tack, the owners of a downtown Miami lot where the remnants of a prehistoric Tequesta Indian village have been unearthed launched an attack Thursday on the archaeologists responsible, calling their conclusions about the site "hokum" and "a joke.'' In an interview Thursday, an attorney for MDM Development Group, which plans to build a hotel and commercial project on the site, dismissed archeologists' conclusions that hundreds of postholes carved into the bedrock at the site mark the foundations of circular dwellings and other structures that once made up a portion of a 2,000-year-old settlement at the mouth of t
Foundation Work to Begin at New 900-room Wilshire Grand Site in Los Angeles
February 14, 2014
Feb. 14--The latest addition to the Los Angeles skyline -- the New Wilshire Grand, the tallest structure to be built west of the Mississippi -- takes a major step forward Saturday when more than 2,000 truckloads of concrete are driven through downtown for what is being billed as the world's largest continuous concrete pour. The slurry-fest begins at 5 p.m. and is expected to last nearly 20 hours. Wilshire Boulevard and 7th and Figueroa streets in the vicinity of the construction site will be closed from noon Saturday to 10 p.m. Sunday. Visitors can take in the bright lights and the armada of trucks from the sidewalks of Figueroa Street
Chinese Developer, Greenland Group, Plans $1 Billion L.A. Metropolis Project; Includes 350-key Hotel
February 14, 2014
Feb. 14--Chinese real estate developer Greenland Group revealed plans Friday for a quick start on the first phase of its $1-billion Metropolis Los Angeles project that is expected to redefine the downtown skyline. Work is set to begin shortly on a high-rise hotel and a residential skyscraper on what is now a vast parking lot along the 100 Freeway north of Staples Center and LA Live. The buildings should be open by 2016. "Greenland USA is pleased to join the downtown Los Angeles community and to make one of the largest investments in downtown in recent history," Chief Executive Ifei Chang said in a statement. "Our company has the experie
Despite Neighborhood Skepticism, Renovation in Full Force for Old Sunset Hotel in St. Petersburg, FL
February 14, 2014
Feb. 14--ST. PETERSBURG -- Developer Mark Tong feels positive energy in this 99-year-old hotel at the city's western gateway. Many people who live nearby do not. In the past decade, this yellow, three-story remnant of the Jazz Age has changed hands several times, one renovation scheme after another failing to come together. One owner reopened it for a time as a transient lodge, attracting prostitution, drug deals and other unwelcome activities to the neighborhood of brick-lined streets behind it, residents say. Some neighbors have urged the city to find a way to bulldoze the old Sunset Hotel at 7401 Central Ave., but the 1915 building h
Q&A: Commune Hotels CEO Niki Leondakis, on Palo Alto, CA’s New Epiphany Hotel
February 14, 2014
Feb. 14--It must have been something Niki Leondakis saw or tasted or heard as a young girl flitting about her Greek grandma's restaurant that first spawned her love for the hospitality industry. Whatever it was that struck her about Charlie's Diner, celebrated as the first stainless-steel eatery in Western Massachusetts, it stuck. Today, as CEO of San Francisco-based Commune Hotels & Resorts, Leondakis has become one of the country's most prominent women in the leisure and travel business. And with 38 hotels in three countries already under her command, including the oh-so-hip Joie de Vivre chain of boutique inns, Leondakis is about
Tourist Arrivals in Philippines Rise Nearly 10% in 2013 Despite Disasters
February 14, 2014
Feb. 14--MANILA (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN) -- Despite the series of calamities that struck last year, the Philippines registered a 9.56 per cent growth in foreign arrivals in 2013. The Department of Tourism (DOT) announced Thursday that the country welcomed a total of 4,681,307 foreign visitors last year, surpassing the 4,272,811 arrivals recorded in 2012 by 9.56 per cent. But the figure was below the nation's target of five million arrivals for the year. This was likely to due to the powerful earthquake, which killed more than 220 people and damaged facilities and roads in the popular tourist islands of Cebu and Bohol in October,
R.D. Olson Plans 250-room Hotel for Huntington Beach, California; Gets City Go Ahead
February 13, 2014
Feb. 13--A developer is ready to go ahead with construction of its hotel on a portion of the long-awaited Pacific City project on Pacific Coast Highway. The Huntington Beach Planning Commission voted 5 to 1 on Tuesday, with Commissioner Bob Dingwall dissenting and Commissioner Mark Bixby abstaining, to approve minor adjustments to the plans for the eight-story hotel, including adding tandem valet spaces in its underground parking garage and adjusting the aesthetics of the building to include a wave design. With the go-ahead from the commission, Irvine-based developer R.D. Olson can apply for its building permits, so long as the project