SUNDAY NEWS JOURNAL DELAWAREONLINE.COM SUNDAY, APRIL 5, 2015 5E Hotels Continued from Page 1E as two restaurants and an events venue. A second phase of the project now underway will add another 22 hotel rooms, 10 condos and an expanded parking garage by Memorial Day, with 10 more condos set for completion after the summer. Harvey’s partners in TKo Hospitality are more familiar with the hotel management side of the business. Kostas Kalogeropoulos and Vince DiFonzo each recently left top-level executive jobs with Meyer Jabara Hotels, a Connecticut-based hospitality company that operates 20 hotels in 10 states. In fact, TKo Hospitality’s first move was to take over the management of Lighthouse Cove from their former employer. “[Meyer Jabara] had a multi-year contract but we bought it out because we felt we could do a better job internally,” Harvey said. “At the same time, Kostas and Vince were interested in leaving and doing something on their own, so it just made sense.” Now the firm is turning its attention to constructing new hotels in the region. “The hotel industry is finally starting to pick back up and we think we’ve assembled a team that’s uniquely poised to take advantage of that growth,” Harvey said. “Our goal is to have 1,000 rooms in our portfolio by the end of 2016 with 50 to 100 percent more by the start of 2018.” TKo’s current slate of projects includes three upscale hotels in “a resort community on Maryland’s Eastern Shore” – totaling 400 rooms – and two hotels totaling 250 rooms in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, north of Philadelphia. DiFonza, the chief operating officer of TKo, said the firm can’t provide any other details about the projects due to the non-disclosure agreements it has with Hyatt, Marriot and Hilton Hotels & Resorts, the chains that will be licensing the new facilities. “I can tell you that we plan to break ground on three of those projects in the late summer to early fall, with about 12 to 16 months of construction before they open,” said the former chairman of the Delaware Hotel and Lodging Association, who also previously served as general manager of the 266-room Hilton Wilmington/Christiana on behalf of Meyer Jabara. “The other projects are in various stages of the approval process.” At the same time, TKo is working to acquire third-party management contracts with existing hotels, similar to how it took over operations at the Hyatt Place in Dewey Beach. “Right now, we are in negotiations with some Delaware hotel owners that are interested in hiring us to manage their properties,” DiFonza said. “Nothing has been solidified at this time, but I think it’s safe to say we will expanding our presence in the Delaware market at some point.” While TKo is looking to rapidly establish a foothold in the industry, DiFonza said the company does not aspire to become a national-level hotelier. “I think in the next five to six years, we’d like to have 15 to 20 hotels in our portfolio, not 40 to 50,” he said. “But we’ve set these aggressive goals at the start in order to become relevant in the industry.” If the firm’s planned rate of growth is successful, TKo would stand out in Delaware, said Bill Sullivan, chairman of the Greater Wilmington Convention & Visitors Bureau and managing director of the Courtyard Newark at the University JAMES FISHER/THE NEWS JOURNAL E. Thomas Harvey, the developer behind the Lighthouse Cove Resort in Dewey Beach, has partnered with two former executives of the hotel management company that previously operated the resort to form a new company that is building hotels in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Vince DiFonzo Kostas Kalogeropoulos E. Thomas Harvey of Delaware. “Most Delaware hospitality firms are small, family-owned operations that might have one or two properties,” he said. “There aren’t a lot of big hotel management companies in Delaware at all, really.” Possibly the largest, Sullivan said, is Ocean City, Maryland-based Real Hospitality, which manages nearly 50 hotels in eight states, including four in Delaware. The national hotel market is certainly primed for TKo to match that size in the coming years. During the recession, new hotel construction stagnated while many existing hotels closed their doors as vacationers and business travelers curtailed their spending habits. Business has picked up again in recent years, but hotel rooms are not being added fast enough to keep up with demand. According to the industry’s leading data provider STR Inc., the number of hotel rooms nationwide grew by less than 1 percent last year, while demand jumped 4.6 percent. As a result, national occupancy rates are expected to hit 30-year highs in 2016. That’s driving room rates higher and most hotel chains are building properties as fast as they can to capitalize on those market forces. As of February, 436,000 hotel rooms were under contract for construction, an 18-percent increase over 2014. Harvey said TKo plans to take advantage of that booming growth by offering its services to guide developers and hotel owners from architectural design through construction and on to actual day-to-day management. “This is a consolidation industry and I like being a consolidator,” he said. “Our goal is to see what we can amass and where that will take us. I think this is going to be a fun ride.” Contact Scott Goss at (302) 324-2281 or [email protected]. On Twitter: @ScottGossDel DELAWARE ACHIEVERS FINANCAL SERVICES Joshua Shaver, a field director at Diamond State Financial Group in Newark, recently received the Brian H. Early Frontline Excellence Award from General Agents and Managers Association (GAMA) International. The honor recognizes frontline and second-line managers who are a role model for others and viewed as emerging leaders in their companies. Nominees must demonstrate outstanding success in helping to build their firm or agency through developing, growing or leading their units. Each company is responsible for determining the criteria it will use to select its nominee. Shaver was among 15 managers who accepted the award during GAMA’s annual conference in Washington D.C. last month. Shaver graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Delaware. Newark-based Sallie Mae recently announced two new appointments to its board of directors, as well as an expansion of the board from 11 seats to 12. The new board members are former congressman Jim Matheson and Vivian C. Schneck-Last, a former managing director at Goldman, Sachs & Company. From 2001 to 2015, Matheson represented Utah in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served as chief deputy whip for the House Democratic Caucus. This year, he joined Squire Patton Boggs as a principal in the public policy practice. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a master’s of business administration from UCLA Anderson School of Management. Schneck-Last most recently served as managing director, global head of technology governance for Goldman Sachs. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Touro College and a master’s degree in business administration from Columbia University. Matheson and Schneck-Last are independent directors who will stand for election at the annual stockholders meeting in June. INSURANCE Arthur Hall Insurance recently welcomed Josh Isler as a commercial account executive. Isler began his career with Arthur Hall Insurance but spent the last eight years as an account executive with Shevland and Associates in Malvern, Pennsylvania. He holds the insurance industry’s premier designation from the Certified Insurance Counselor Society, whose members are required to pass rigorous undergraduate and graduate-level examinations, meet experience requirements and agree to be bound by a strict code of professional ethics. Isler earned bachelor’s degrees in management and marketing from Eastern University. He lives with his family in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and is actively involved with Young Life in Chester County. Arthur Hall Insurance has offices in West Chester, Pennsylvania, Sparta, New Jersey and Hockessin. LAW Fish & Richardson recently received top “Band 1” designation in the United States for its intellectual property patent practice and its International Trade Commission practice in the Chambers Global 2015 rankings. The “Band 1” designation is the highest ranking Lon M. Fluman III Josh Isler Joshua Shaver Tyler Berl possible and means Fish has been identified as among the world’s best law firms. A global patent and intellectual property law firm with offices in Wilmington, Fish has been ranked by Corporate Counsel at the No. 1 patent litigation firm in the United States for the last 11 years. In February, Managing Intellectual Property magazine also ranked Fish as the most active law firm at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board for 2014. urban affairs and public policy from the University of Delaware. He also previously worked in the research department at the university’s School of Public Policy and Administration and as a legislative fellow in the Delaware House of Representatives. Delaware Hospice recently honored its New Castle County volunteers at a recognition luncheon at the Cavaliers Country Club in Christiana. Nearly 75 volunteers and guests attended the event, where 48 volunteers with at least five years of service were recognized for their combined 505 years of tireless work. Among them was 90-year-old Eleanor Lewis, who will be retiring from her volunteer duties after 30 years of service. Other honorees included 25-year volunteer Marilyn Mengden, 20-year volunteers Jo-Ann Biggs, Joe Masiello, Maryann McConnell, Janet Richardson and Dale Stratton, and 15-year volunteers John Kurzenberger and James Tucker. The event also featured a special thank you to the New Castle County Festival of Trees Committee members for their work during the three-day event at Cokesbury Village in Hockessin. Over the last nine years, volunteers have helped raise more than $1.6 million through the New Castle County event. nizes the top 10 teams and individuals in terms of units and gross commission income. Pinnacle Award winners included Mike McCann & the McCann Team from the Society Hill office in Philadelphia, Robin Gordon from the Haverford Station office in Haverford, Pennsylvania and Michael Wilson from the Brandywine office in Wilmington. Another 20 Fox & Roach agents and teams were listed in the Top 100 in the BHHS Network. Re/Max has ranked The Debbie Reed Team of Re/Max Realty Group in Rehoboth Beach as 24th in sales in the United States and 37th among Re/Max teams worldwide. The team also retained its place in the real estate franchiser’s Diamond Award Club, which recognizes those teams with gross commission of more than $1 million. The rankings were revealed during Re/Max’s annual R4 International Conference in Las Vegas. Five agents from the Debbie Reed team attended the conference, including team founder and leader Debbie Reed, Ashlee Reed Hindell, Cindy Marsh, Amy Warick and Sherri Nowicki. NONPROFITS Tyler Berl was recently hired as the new manager of the HIV/ AIDS Community Planning process by the Delaware HIV Consortium. His first day was April 1. The community planning organization is tasked with overseeing and making recommendations to the Delaware Division of Public Health concerning the expenditure of federal Ryan White Title II funds, as well as the Center for Disease Control prevention and education grants. The community planning agency is made up of service and medical providers, consumers, corporations and other stakeholders. Berl earned a bachelor’s degree in communications and a master’s degree in REAL ESTATE Lon M. Fluman III recently joined Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach Realtors’ Newark office as a sales associate. He previously spent 25 years managing restaurants and holds membership in the Million Dollar Round Table financial professionals association. A member of the New Castle County Board of Realtors, he will serve New Castle and Kent counties. Fluman earned a degree in business management from Wesley College in Dover. He lives in Townsend with his wife, Dawn, and their six children. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach Realtors chairman and CEO Lawrence Flick recently announced that the company has received the Elite Circle Award, which is given annually to the top 50 companies in BHHS Real Estate Network. Fox & Roach was ranked first in residential units and second in gross commission income. Three Fox & Roach sales associates also received the Pinnacle Award, which recog-
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