Marriott Breaks Ground on Its First Hispanic-Owned Hotel in Washington, D.C.

D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Hispanic Hotel Owners Association President

to Give Remarks

    WASHINGTON, July 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Marriott International, Inc. (
 MAR) joins Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and the Hispanic Hotel
 Owners Association (HHOA) today to break ground on the first Hispanic-
 owned Marriott hotel in the District of Columbia. The soon-to-be 218-room
 Courtyard by Marriott, set to open in 2009, will be located in the new NoMA
 (North of Massachusetts Avenue) Business Improvement District and majority-
 owned by Robert Finvarb, Esq., of the Finvarb Group. Local business owners
 Craig Welburn of Welburn Hospitality, Dave Wilmot, Esq. of Harmon, Wilmot,
 Brown & Bagwell, LLP and local businessmen Thomas Hopkins and Dr. Barron
 Harvey; will also have partial ownership in the hotel.
     "This ground breaking is symbolic of many things," said Washington,
 D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. "It means increased jobs for area residents,
 growth opportunities for local business owners and forward movement on the
 up-and- coming NoMA area of the District. It's great for our city."
     Launched in 2005, the Diversity Ownership Initiative was established to
 introduce savvy business owners to the hospitality industry and to
 diversify the company's ownership base. The goal is to have 500 hotels
 owned or managed by minorities and/or women by 2010.
     "The new Courtyard partnership with Finvarb, Welburn and Wilmot is a
 great example of Marriott's Diversity Ownership Initiative," said Norman K.
 Jenkins, senior vice president, North American Lodging Development,
 Marriott International, and champion of the Diversity Ownership Initiative.
 "We currently have more than 400 hotels that are owned, managed or in the
 pipeline by diverse owners. We're well on track to exceed our five-year
 goal."
     "Marriott's Diversity Ownership Initiative has opened the door to hotel
 ownership within the Hispanic community," said Angela Gonzales-Rowe,
 president and founder of the Hispanic Hotel Owners Association. "With 25
 Hispanic- American owned hotels, opened or in development since its
 inception, the program is clearly leading the industry."
     Marriott has a long-standing commitment to diversity. This year, the
 company was named "Top 50 Companies for Diversity" by DiversityInc, "Top 50
 Companies for Supplier Diversity" by Hispanic Trends magazine, and has been
 recognized by Fortune magazine as one of "America's Most Admired Companies"
 for the eighth consecutive year. In 2003, Marriott established the
 Committee for Excellence to monitor ongoing progress in the areas of hotel
 ownership, human resources and supplier diversity. It is chaired by BET
 Networks President Debra Lee and has reported recent successes which
 include a record spend of $400 million with diverse suppliers and an
 all-time high in diverse appointments to management positions.
     The soon-to-be Courtyard by Marriott will feature a green roof and
 showcase elements of the brand's "reinvented" strategy, which applies
 creative guest room and lobby elements to newly opened hotels. One of the
 new design features is the console desk design, which offers movable
 casters, an increased workspace, additional power outlets, and improved
 lighting to increase productivity. The hotel will be included among new
 NoMA residents - U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
 (ATF), XM Satellite Radio, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, Kaiser
 Permanente, and CNN.
     For more information on Marriott's Diversity Ownership Initiative,
 diversity programs or the Courtyard by Marriott brand, visit
 www.marriott.com.
     About HHOA
     Headquartered in Washington, D.C., HHOA is a non-profit organization
 whose mission is to increase the number of Hispanic-owned, -developed and
 -operated hotels, further the participation of Hispanic-owned suppliers
 serving the hotel industry and increase executive level employment
 opportunities for Hispanics within the lodging industry. Marriott
 International, Inc. is a corporate sponsor. Additional information about
 HHOA is available at the association's Web site, http://www.hhoa.org/.
     About NoMA
     Approved by the District of Columbia Council in March 2007, the BID
 supports the emergence of NoMa as one of the District's most exciting
 mixed- use neighborhoods. Through a special assessment collected from
 NoMA's commercial property owners, the BID will help make NoMA safe, clean,
 and attractive for businesses, residents, and visitors. Private developers
 are investing more than $1 billion over the next year with plans to develop
 over 20 million square feet of office, residential, hotel, and retail space
 in the 35-block area covered by the NoMA BID over the next 20 years. The
 NoMA BID, served by the New York Avenue Metro station, is bounded generally
 by Massachusetts Avenue on the south, North Capitol Street on the west, and
 Q and R Streets on the north; it extends eastward just beyond the
 CSX/Metrorail tracks. For more information about the BID, including a map,
 see the BID Website at www.nomabid.org.
     MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL, INC. ( MAR) is a leading lodging company
 with nearly 2,900 lodging properties in the United States and 67 other
 countries and territories. Marriott International operates and franchises
 hotels under the Marriott, JW Marriott, The Ritz-Carlton, Renaissance,
 Residence Inn, Courtyard, TownePlace Suites, Fairfield Inn, SpringHill
 Suites and Bulgari brand names; develops and operates vacation ownership
 resorts under the Marriott Vacation Club International, Horizons, The
 Ritz-Carlton Club and Grand Residences by Marriott brands; operates
 Marriott Executive Apartments; provides furnished corporate housing through
 its Marriott ExecuStay division; and operates conference centers. The
 company is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has approximately 151,000
 employees at 2006 year-end. In fiscal year 2006, Marriott International
 reported sales from continuing operations of $12.2 billion. For more
 information or reservations, please visit our web site at www.marriott.com.
 
 

SOURCE Marriott International, Inc.