The numbers aren't overwhelming, but they're very much better: The 8th Annual International Multicultural Tourism/Hotel Ownership Summit & Trade Show drew more than 280 people to the Royal Palm Crowne Plaza Resort in South Beach in July. African-American hotel developers both actual and potential gathered at Don Peebles' InterContinental Hotels Group hotel seemed not only eager to do business with the major brands, but, perhaps for the first time, ready. Attendance was up more than 80 from last year.

Whether the 2005 minority summit uses Peebles' property for a fourth year is open to question, however. Michael Roberts, the St. Louis, MO media and real estate magnate who succeeded Miami Beach/Washington, DC developer Peebles as chairman of the board of the National Association of Black Hotel Owners, Operators & Developers, says the summit will again be at the Royal Palm. NABHOOD President Andrew Ingraham says that's not certain, however, and Peebles himself said the summit has outgrown his hotel.

"Our days of hosting the summit here are numbered," Peebles said, urging attendees to build or acquire more hotels so such events can be held elsewhere. "Keep the pressure on the hospitality industry," said Peebles, who has shifted his sights from hotels to luxury condominiums. It's pathetic that African-Americans own only 30 hotels in the U.S., he said.

Peebles and Roberts suggested hotel companies still have much work to do to attract and accommodate African-American entrepreneurs. Among his goals is to change "the old boy network to the homeboy network," joked Roberts, who is leading the charge. He's not alone.

Brothers Michael and Steven Roberts own the Mayfair, a historic Wyndham in St. Louis. James Guillory and Kirk Sykes own, respectively, hotels in Houston and Boston. A group of African-American fraternity brothers own a Hawthorn Suites in suburban Detroit. African-Americans this summer paid Hilton Hotels Corp. about $40 million for a 258-room Doubletree in Modesto, CA and a 262-room Doubletree in Bakersfield, CA. Ingraham told attendees African-American developers would break ground on two hotels in downtown Miami this year.

That might not happen in 2004, however. One hotel would be part of a multi-use development Miami wants built; vying for the city business is Brickell Ventures, a local African-American private equity fund. Another hotel has been proposed by Red Rock Global, an Atlanta real estate services company. The proposals are in various stages of development.

Despite this ambiguity, the summit was dynamic. Not only were major brands well represented, the conference also drew representatives from the financial and academic communities. One of NABHOOD's goals is to encourage development of hotels on campuses of historically African- American colleges and universities, according to Ingraham.

Obstacles and Opportunities
Warren Fields, among the more dynamic speakers at the summit, offered encouragement tempered by wariness. The former Promus Hotels Corp. executive is chief investment officer of Pyramid Advisors, a Boston firm that in a joint venture with Morgan Stanley bought eight Adam's Mark hotels for $236 million late last year.

Fields said "a stigma in the black community about the service profession" deters African-Americans from hospitality. Overcome that, he urged a group of students visiting from the Dade County Academy of Hospitality and Tourism. Learn the fundamentals of operations, construction and capital structure, and find a partner.

Location, location, location remains the mantra, said Fields. Next comes management, management, management: Fields suggested that first-time hoteliers ally with strong operating partners. He concluded by pledging $5,000 to establish a NABHOOD scholarship for an African-American to acquire a degree in hospitality and/or the culinary arts at an accredited college or university.

Also ponying up: Hilton Hotels Corp. The $25,000 check it gave NABHOOD puts it on the advisory board—like the Asian American Hotel Owners Association, which has been helping NABHOOD professionalize.

Global and Upbeat
Primarily oriented toward the U.S., the summit also stressed its Caribbean connections with presentations by Perry Christie, prime minister of the Bahamas, and Michael Misick, chief minister of the Turks & Caicos Islands. Both dignitaries were in town to encourage hotel development in their respective countries—and, perhaps, to scout out U.S. opportunities.

Also attending: Asie Ocansey, a princess from Ghana. "We get calls from Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa, looking to partner with African-American groups to develop their tourism industry and for joint hotel ventures in those countries," Ingraham says.

Some deals are farther along, like ones involving InterContinental Hotel Group. "This NABHOOD was much better," says Brown Kessler, IHG vice president of franchise development. He's working on "trying to get the site tied down" in one deal, another in the application stage and one even more preliminary. "It might be because the economic climate is different," Kessler says, "but more people were talking about specific projects."