JMBM Hotel Lawyers Announce First Green Hotel Development Conference | By Jim Butler

As we have said here on www.HotelLawBlog.com before: "Don't wait for the GREEN. It is here"

Cost premiums are falling. Payback is fast.

"It seems like only yesterday that sustainable hotel development represented a 10-20% cost premium, which was largely unaffordable to most developers," says hotel lawyer Jim Butler, chairman of JMBM's Global Hospitality Group® and author or www.HotelLawBlog.com. "Today the premium cost for green-certification can be as low as 1-2%, and developers can expect economic payback of that premium in as little as 12-24 months."

Hotel developers cannot afford to miss the GREEN.

Focusing on why hotel developers can't afford NOT to build green, the revolutionary conference will present leading experts in the green development world - from environmentally conscious architects to seasoned green builders - all centered on how to "grow" a project from the ground up, renovate an existing structure from the top down, stay on budget, and operate efficiently. Panels on the hard facts of financing and property management are just two of the innovative topics hotel developers can expect. (See It's dangerous NOT to be "green")

Hotel industry is behind the curve on GREEN.

"Because hotel developers represent the last real estate food group to understand the compelling economics of green development, this conference will offer a 'Green Hotels 101' education all the way through the 'post graduate' work of continuing sustainability," says Butler, author of the well-respected www.HotelLawBlog.com. "And we're not just going to talk the talk without walking the walk either. We intend to make the entire conference itself completely carbon-neutral."

Speakers and content.

Already signed up as a keynote speaker is David Gottfried, founder of the U.S. Green Building Council with over 10,000 member organizations, and the World Green Building Council, now 10 countries strong and growing. The author of Greed to Green, an inspirational account of his 20-year journey as a successful real estate developer to a pioneer of the green building movement, Gottfried, took on the $3 trillion global building industry in the 1980s and pushed it to embrace sustainability.

"I'm more of a pragmatic, business-oriented hotel advisor and lawyer than a tree hugger, but it's clear to me that 2007 marks the 'tipping point' of the green movement," says Butler. "If hotel developers don't start surfing on this green wave, they're going to drown in lost opportunity - besides, there's an added premium. Building green is simply the right thing to do."

The Hotel Developers Conference™.

Sponsored by JMBM's Global Hospitality Group®, The Hotel Developers Conference™ covers the full spectrum of hotel/resort development as well as hotel mixed-use, including condo hotels and hotel condos. By dedicating the 2008 conference to green development, the Global Hospitality Group®, which has helped clients with more than $40 billion in hospitality transactions, hopes to encourage hotel owners, developers and lenders to launch green initiatives into future and existing hotel projects. For more information go to: www.jmbm.com/THDC.

This is Jim Butler, author of www.HotelLawBlog.com and hotel lawyer, signing off. We've done more than $40 billion of hotel transactions and more than 100 hotel mixed-used deals in the last 5 years alone. Who's your hotel lawyer?