The Hilton Kingston on Knutsford Boulevard is the only hospitality property bearing the brand in Jamaica. - File

The Hilton Hotel Corporation (HHC) has announced an expansion of its alliance with real estate investment company Caribbean Property Group, on 15 new hotels to be developed regionally over the next five years.

The financial terms were not disclosed, but the new properties are to be built in Trinidad, Dominican Republic, Panama, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, and managed under the Hilton brand.

Hilton's Tom Keltner, the chief executive for the Americas and Global brands, said the locations selected were considered growing markets where the hotel company's 10 brands were "either under-represented or absent."

New York-based CPG already owns two major hotel-casinos, both in San Juan. Its combined holdings in Puerto Rico reportedly amount to some US$2 billion in real estate assets in Puerto Rico, including 5.8 million square feet of retail space, 2.2 million square feet of warehouse space and 300,000 square feet of office space.

"CPG, along with joint venture partners, focuses on acquiring income-producing, fixed real estate assets in the Caribbean and Central America across four platforms — hotel, retail, office and industrial," said a Hilton release on the deal.

Separately, Hilton also has entered into an agreement with the Caribbean Real Estate Opportunity Fund 2005 LP - a US$500 million equity fund managed by CPG and co-sponsored by Goldman Sachs - to manage two of the fund's hotels in Costa Rica under the Hilton and Doubletree brands.

The arrangement takes effect December.

The American hotel group has a wider plan to boost its international portfolio of hotels to 1,000 within the decade, including partnerships in China to build 100 properties in seven years.

Alongside the CPG deal, Hilton also said it was partnering with London & Regional Properties Limited on 25 hotels in Russia, and Shiva Hotels in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 15 properties in the UK within the same five-year span.

"These important alliances will reinforce our position as the premier global hotel company and underscore our strategy to sign large deals with major investors to develop a significant number of hotels in key growth markets around the world," said Hilton president and chief operating officer Matthew Hart.

Well on our way

"We are well on our way to achieving our stated goal of at least 1,000 hotels outside of North America over the next 10 years."

The hotel group comprises 2,800 hotels and 480,000 rooms in 76 countries and territories, which employ 100,000 persons worldwide. In Jamaica, it manages one hotel, the 300-room Hilton Kingston, a property now owned by Carlos Hill of the Cash Plus Group.

CPG will focus initially on the Hilton Garden Inn brand, and later include projects under the Hampton by Hilton and Homewood Suites by Hilton flags.

The company's vice-chairman Barry Breeman said the market was "ripe for focused service hotel development with regional economies have blossomed in the past five years.

"Today, there is a good base of first-class, full-service hotels and resorts, but a very limited number of mid-market, focused service hotels, especially in the premium branded sector." said Breeman.

"In addition to these markets and this segment being significantly underserved, we believe developing under the established Hilton family of hotels will give instant credibility to the projects. And as these projects succeed, we believe they will act as catalysts to help further strengthen local economies and development of other real estate classes."

business@gleanerjm.com