Gemstone Hotels & Resorts Selected to Manage Four-star Sky Lodge Hotel in Park City, Utah

PARK CITY, Utah, Nov. 3, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Officials of Gemstone Hotels & Resorts, a full-service hotel management company that specializes in luxury and upscale urban hotels and complex, multi-faceted resorts, announced that it has signed an agreement to manage the four-star Sky Lodge hotel in Park City, Utah.  The two-year-old, mixed use, independent luxury boutique property is owned by WestLB, a European commercial bank based in Dusseldorf, Germany.

"Our goal is to take The Sky Lodge to the next level and help it become the social epicenter of Park City," said Jeff McIntyre, principal of Gemstone.  "It has all the qualities and advantages that set it apart from the competition.  It has the prime location on the best corner in the city, across the street from the town lift to Park City Mountain Resort.  With some of the finest one- to three-bedroom suites available in any hotel, great restaurant facilities and the only rooftop bar in the market, we intend to ratchet up the creativity and enhance the individual experience, which in turn will generate the kind of hotel buzz that has marked Gemstone's success as an operator."  

"There are only a handful of management companies with expertise in complex resort properties, homeowner associations, rental programs and fractional operations," said Thomas Prins, principal of Gemstone Hotels & Resorts.  "Our proven track record with condo hotels and reputation for creating a truly unique lodging experience made this a perfect project for Gemstone."  

Located at the corner of Heber Avenue and Main Street in the center of Park City's historic Old Town, the six-floor condo hotel offers 22 luxuriously appointed, oversized one-, two- and three-bedroom units, yielding 33 keys, ranging in size from approximately 1,600 square feet to a 2,700 square-foot penthouse, with an additional 1,600 square feet of outside space that includes two hot tubs.  Guest suites include full kitchens and top-end entertainment systems, custom-designed furniture, finishes, artwork and accessories throughout, large windows offering extraordinary mountain vistas, fireplaces in the great rooms and all master bedrooms, flat-panel HDTVs, two-line portable phones and high-speed wireless Internet access.  

"Operationally, this property is right in our sweet spot, with our considerable expertise in condo fractionals and independent, high-end mountain resorts, which is how our company began," McIntyre said.  He added that Gemstone currently is developing plans to enhance the hotel's meeting experience.  "The property is just two years old and requires only minor capital investment, but a good portion of those funds will be used to add new state-of-the-art technology to the meeting rooms.  We also are well along in the reconcepting and relaunch of the Sky Blue rooftop bar, which will reopen in November."  

Among the hotel's several food and beverage options are three world-class restaurants, including Robert Redford's Zoom, Easy Street and Bar Boheme.  Other amenities include the Japanese-influenced Amatsu Spa; a fitness center with two-lane, heated indoor/outdoor lap pool; and over 3,000 square feet of unique and inspiring meeting space.  

With its incredible views of the Wasatch Mountains and "stroll-to" proximity to restaurants, nightlife, museums, theater, boutique shopping and skiing, Sky Lodge is a favorite of ski aficionados and year-round vacationers visiting this world-class resort destination.  Sky Lodge already is rated the #1 hotel in Park City on TripAdvisor.com, outranking local five-star competitors.

Park City is one of the nation's premier ski destinations, ranked as one of the top five ski resorts in the U.S. for 2010 by Ski Magazine.  The resort also offers year-round recreation activities such as hiking, biking, jet-skiing, and climbing.  Park City also is the site of the Sundance Film Festival held in February, which attracted more than 40,000 visitors to the area in 2010.  "Sky Lodge is an official 'provider' of this renowned festival and serves as a major center of activity for a wide swath of international travelers, A-list celebrities and filmmakers who attend Sundance and want a uniquely luxurious lodging experience," Prins said.  "Think of the Sky Lodge as Western loft chic—kind of Hollywood meets the mountains."

About WestLB

WestLB AG is one of Germany's leading financial services providers and offers the full range of products and services of a universal bank, focusing on lending, corporates and structured finance, capital market and private equity products and transaction services.  WestLB has total assets of euro 251.2 billion, as of June 30, 2010.  For more information, please visit www.westlb.com.

In the United States, certain securities, trading, brokerage and advisory services are provided by WestLB's wholly owned subsidiary WestLB Securities Inc., a registered broker-dealer and member of the NASD and SIPC.

About Gemstone Hotels & Resorts LLC

Headquartered in Park City, Utah, Gemstone is a full-service operating and asset management company that specializes in luxury and upscale hotels and complex resorts.  Gemstone currently manages or asset manages 15 projects in California, Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, Texas, Florida, West Virginia, Idaho, and New York.  For more information about Gemstone, go to www.gemstoneresorts.com.

SOURCE Gemstone Hotels & Resorts