Landauer/Hospitality Consulting combine.

Landauer Realty Advisors, an affiliate of Landauer Associates, Inc., the international real estate counseling firm, has announced it has combined with the staff of Boston-based Hospitality Consulting, Inc. (HCI). The move dramatically expands Landauer's hospitality leadership role, placing it among the nation's three largest hotel real estate consulting practices.

Under the arrangement, Landauer hospitality services will be managed by two units: Boston-based Landauer Hospitality Advisory Services will operate under Landauer Realty Advisors; and; New York-based Landauer Hospitality Appraisal Services will operate under Landauer Associates, Inc.

Former HCI managing director Kenneth Wilson, CRE, and former HCI principals Chad Crandell, Curtis Cornelssen and Geoffrey Baekey were elected senior vice presidents of Landauer Hospitality Advisory Services. Wilson also was named national director of Landauer Hospitality Advisory Services. Sean Hennessey, MAI, senior vice president, was named national director of Landauer Hospitality Appraisal Services.

"Landauer has always had a significant hotel consulting and appraisal practice, but the collaboration provides us with the capability to handle any size assignment worldwide," according to Phillip E. Jennings, chief executive officer of Landauer Associates.

Based in New York, Landauer is one of the largest real estate consulting and appraisal firms in the U.S., specializing in office buildings, shopping centers, corporate and factory site locations, land and other related projects, including hotels.

Landauer will provide a nationwide network of more than 20 hospitality consulting professionals who average some 10 years operating and consulting experience each, with a minimum three years in hotel operations, operating from offices in New York, Boston, Atlanta, Ft. Lauderdale, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Landauer Hospitality Services will focus on the following areas:

* Asset management and asset advisory services - including individual asset and portfolio analysis and complete hotel asset management services;

* Appraisal and valuation - including land and property evaluation, valuation, appraisal and real estate investment counseling for owners/investors in hotels, casinos, resorts, amusement parks and golf courses;

* Litigation support - review of documentation and expert witness testimony; *Research - strategic review and analysis of hotel real estate trends and direction;

* General consulting - including strategic planning, disposition and acquisition analysis; concept development and facilities planning, operational and diagnostic reviews, market analysis feasibility and impact studies, market re-positioning studies;

* Public sector - including consulting and asset advisory services for a full range of hospitality operations for government organizations, such as military bases, The Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Park Service and other related organizations, as well as continued. work with the RTC and FDIC;

* Food and beverage - including restaurant facilities inside hotels, resorts and public sector operations, as well as free-standing and multi-unit operations; and

* Consumer preference and focus group research - including primary research on product development, consumer satisfaction, and demand and utilization characteristics.

"Landauer focuses on the strategic level for investors, owners and management companies, to help them achieve maximum return on investment" Hennessey said. "The firm is highly regarded for its ability to provide impartial, well-researched advice, unbiased by the transaction's outcome," Wilson said. "We will differ from other large hotel consulting firms in terms of national structure, service orientation, entrepreneurial style and depth of capabilities, balanced by a rich real estate heritage and blue-chip reputation."

"Operating strictly as a real estate organization, we avoid the burden of internally conflicting goals and priorities," Hennessey said. "Because of our extensive expertise in uses of complex properties, we bring both a broad and specific perspective to each situation which allows us to excel in the analysis of complex, mixed-used properties involving hospitality real estate. For example, we do not approach real estate problems with an accounting mindset - one which may lead to conflicting demands on the specialists' time and add costly procedures prior to making recommendations," he said. "Because we focus solely on real estate and investment-related procedures, we can reach well-researched conclusions in a more focused, cost-effective and timely manner."