Pensacola Beach, Wednesday October 23, 2012 -The Holiday Inn Resort Beachfront Hotel on Pensacola Beach Florida was selected as the 2012 Quality Excellence Award winner by Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG).    IHG manages 666,000 hotel rooms in 9 hotel brands in over 100 countries.  The company’s mission statement is to create Great Hotels that Guests Love.

The award recognizes the Holiday Inn Resort on Pensacola Beach for maintaining exceptionally high standards in respect to product quality, hotel service delivery and guest satisfaction. The award was presented today at the 2012 IHG Americas Investors & Leadership Conference in Orlando, Florida.

This is the second major brand award the Pensacola Beach property has won.  In 2011, Innisfree Hotels, owner operator of the Holiday Inn Resort, was selected by IHG as Developer of the Year.

Martin Kumi, the Holiday Inn Resort’s Maintenance Engineer will also be recognized for his dedication and hard work as will the resort’s Activity Director Shelly Kikel.

The 206 room resort opened in the spring of 2011.  It is located directly on the Gulf of Mexico.  Guests enjoy captivating views of emerald green waters and miles upon miles of sugar white sand.  It is walking distance from restaurants, night life, shopping and recreational activities and only a 30 minute drive from the Pensacola International Airport.

The resort has many unique amenities and services including the best pool on the beach featuring a 250 foot lazy river and cascading waterfall; family suites; seasonal supervised children’s activities, ‘Dive-Inn’ movies; live, interactive pirate and mermaid shows; Riptides Sports Grill & Beachfront Tiki Bar; a 24 hour beach view fitness center; and over 10,000 square feet of beachfront meeting space.

For more than three decades, Innisfree has expertly managed dozens of hotels in partnership with many of the world’s most recognized hotel brands.  Today Innisfree owns or manages 2122 hotel rooms, has approximately 1000 employees and pays in excess of $2,000,0000 in lodging sales taxes and $3,200,000 in real estate taxes annually.

For press inquiries please contact Jill Thomas,  Director of New Media Marketing Innisfree Hotels 850.393.8150.

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July 11, 2012 Orange Beach Alabama – Glenn Goerke, Senior Director of Development and Steve Crabill, Vice President and Managing Director Development at Hilton Worldwide, parent company to the Hampton Inn Hotels brand, traveled to Orange Beach, Alabama from Atlanta this week to present a Deal of the Year Award to Innisfree Hotels’ CEO and Founder Julian MacQueen. 

Innisfree, a hotel management and development company based in Gulf Breeze Florida, is proud to accept this  distinguished worldwide brand award for the development of the Hampton Inn & Suites in Orange Beach, Alabama.  The hotel, which opened in the spring of 2011, was chosen from over 150 hotels worldwide that were opened, approved or under construction last year under the Hampton flag.  The Hampton Inn brand portfolio includes over 1800 hotels worldwide and was designated as the leading hotel brand in the world by Franchise Times Magazine in 2011.

The construction of this state of the art 160 room hotel cost $31 million to build and the project was distinguished by its ‘fast track construction’ schedule.  Rich Chism, Innisfree’s Director of Development, says, “One of the most interesting things about this project was the speed at which we moved from conception to opening.  We were laying the foundation before we had completed the design.  It was an exciting, dynamic process facilitated by the cooperation of the City of Orange Beach.” 

The hotel was constructed by Robins and Morton;  65 year-old construction and engineering company that consistently ranks among the 100 largest U.S. builders in the United States.  This was the second hotel Robins and Morton built for Innisfree Hotels and the two companies are currently constructing a third project; building a Hyatt Place Hotel at the Pensacola International Airport.  Project architect was Istvan Peteranecz AIA of Behar Peteranecz Architecture.

The Hampton Inn & Suites in Orange Beach has several notable design features including the bright orange exterior and visually vibrant interior design.   The bright colors were chosen because they speak to the name Orange Beach but also because they promote a guest experience in keeping with Innisfree’s corporate motto of  “providing fun and memorable experiences.”  Exceptional hotel amenities include a beachfront zero entry pool, 3,700 square feet of Gulf front meeting space and a fitness room that overlooks the beach.

This is the second brand level development award Innisfree Hotels has received this year.   Last year they were selected by Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG owns 4,400 hotels under 7 brands) to receive a Developer of the Year award for the Holiday Inn Resort on Pensacola Beach in 2011. Julian MacQueen, CEO and founder of Innisfree accepted the award at the IHG Americas Investors and Leadership Conference held on October 26th 2011 at the Palazzo Hotel in Las Vegas. 

Mr. MacQueen says,  “It is an incredible honor to receive two major brand development awards in a 24 month period. The creativity to pull off this size deal during these most uncertain times came though a collective effort between Bibb Lamar, Bruce Finley, and the entire board at BankTrust of Mobile and Innisfree Hotel’s development team.  I could not be any more proud to be part of this beautiful product. “  Bruce Finley Executive Vice President and Senior Load Officer at BankTrust Financial Group says, “BankTrust is very please with the way the project turned out.  The folks at Innisfree are most professional and a pleasure to work with.”

Innisfree is a hotel management and development company built on the concepts of exceptional service, guest satisfaction and return on investment.  For more than three decades, Innisfree has expertly managed dozens of hotels in partnership with many of the world’s most recognized hotel brands.  Today Innisfree owns or manages 3250 hotel rooms, has approximately 900 employees and pays in excess of $2,000,0000 in lodging sales taxes and $3,200,000 in real estate taxes annually.

Announcement and celebration lunch will take place at Hampton Inn & Suites in Orange Beach Alabama at 12 noon on July 12th, 2012.   Innisfree CEO Julian MacQueen, Glenn Goerke, Senior Director of Development and Steve Crabill, Vice President and Managing Director Development at Hilton Worldwide, parent company to the Hampton Inn Hotels brand will be on hand for interviews and comments.

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Media inquiries contact Jill Thomas (850) 393-8150 jill@innisfree.com.

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The PACE Awards were created by the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce in 1959 as a way to honor outstanding individuals by naming them Emerging Leader of the Year, Business Leader of the Year, Professional Leader of the Year and Community Leader of the Year.  The awards are given each year to recognize outstanding individuals in the community who have made significant contributions to the Pensacola area’s over all economic progress.

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We were chosen from hundreds of hotels flying multiple brand flags.  Julian MacQueen, CEO and founder of Innisfree accepted the award at the IHG Americas Investors and Leadership Conference held on October 26th 2011 at the Palazzo Hotel in Las Vegas. 

Innisfree’s success is a remarkable accomplishment given the company’s regional focus.  Economic times are rough everywhere in America but here on the Gulf Coast multiple hurricanes and the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill have added serious insult to America’s economic injuries.

This success can be attributed to the tenacity of Innisfree’s founder, CEO Julian MacQueen.  His story, and the story of Innisfree, is a tale that rivals even the best rags to riches American dream dramas.  Julian’s first hotel job was as a busboy in a resort hotel in Destin, Florida.  He hitchhiked to the interview and says, “I used my ‘yes sirs’ and ‘no sirs’ a lot and was hired because I was polite.  I lived in a horrible storage room that served as staff housing, but that didn’t matter because there was little time for sleep.

When he graduated from college, financial circumstances dictated that he turn down a graduate school acceptance in favor of a career in hotel group sales.  He climbed the Hyatt Hotel company ranks eventually leaving to secured ownership of a Family Inn Franchise in Mobile, Alabama after developing five franchises for the chain. 

Julian recalls the day he opened his first hotel.  He didn’t have enough money to hire staff and needed immediate revenue to avoid defaulting on the rent.  “The Junior Miss Pageant was on in Mobile.  I knew I could rent the rooms but couldn’t afford housekeeping staff.  Nonetheless I lit up the open sign.  When the customers came I offered them a broom and said if they wanted a room they would have to clean it first.  Basically, I made my first rent payment by convincing my initial customers to do the construction clean up.”

His entrepreneurial drive was always irresistible and in between hotel jobs he owned a hot air balloon company, imported live lobsters and Chinese Yo Yos and sold civil service prep courses door to door.  Julian learned to be a fair boss and a tough negotiator the hard way.  He was conned by an employer who was wanted by the FBI for smuggling  guns from Columbia, had a business investment loan that he personally guaranteed embezzled by his coke addicted partner, and a boss who regularly woke him up for impromptu meetings in the middle of the night.

Through all this,  Julian’s wife Kim supported them by working evenings as a waitress in a Middle Eastern restaurant.  During the day she taught at a Montessori school so their son could attend tuition free.  Kim says, “Back the we didn’t even own a pot large enough to cook a lobster and we still own 95,000 Chinese Yo Yos in a warehouse somewhere.”  She recalls listening to the rat traps go off all night in their dingy apartment and selling Julian’s inherited parent’s silver to buy Christmas presents.

The story of the Holiday Inn Resort starts in 1994 when Julian bought a ramshackle Pensacola Beach hotel called the Beachside Resort on a handshake.  Harlan Butler, Innisfree President says, “There was a sign above the front desk on a piece of painted plywood that read, “Stay at your own risk by order of the Florida Fire Marshall.  There were plastic beer pitchers in the bar with customer’s names on them.  The hotel was as rough as it gets.”

Innisfree rebuilt and reopened the Beachside Resort in June of 1995.  In August hurricane Erin hit.  The hotel sustained damage but survived.  Less then two months later hurricane Opal arrived.  Harlan says, “The first floor of the hotel was swept away and replaced with a sand dune.  We found microwaves clear across the street.”  Julian recalls standing in the debris looking for the swimming pool.   The hotel was closed for six months.

In September 2004, Hurricane Ivan devastated Pensacola Beach.  At its peak it was the size of the state of Texas.  Jeff Townsend, Innisfree’s President of Development says, “We had our best sales ever the day before Ivan arrived.  Ivan closed almost all the hotels on Pensacola Beach – three of them never opened again including the Beachside Resort.”

Innisfree lost seven hotels to Ivan and was forced to lay off four hundred people.  Harlan says,  “The worse day of my thirty day career was letting those people go.  The first hotel to reopen was the Hilton Gulf Front on Pensacola Beach.  The Island Authority used our banquet corridor as a temporary headquarters for the relief effort.  Julian fed relief workers three meals a day for a month.”  Jeff says, “We learned a lot about insurance after the storm.  We worked on that claim until 2009.”

Julian and his team cleaned up the debris and decided to build an Embassy Suites hotel on the site.  They planned an extravagant development with biggest convention center on the beach.  However, the plan was derailed by a shifting real estate market.  Jeff says,  “We knew we had the wrong product and decided to target the family oriented leisure market.  We needed to be efficient.”  So in 2007, when the Holiday Inn franchise became available, Innisfree locked it up.

This decision coincided with a move by Holiday Inn to improve their brand image.  IHG had recently spent over a million dollars to clean up its image.  Jeff says, “Holiday Inn was willing to invest in their image so we were willing to invest in their brand.”  IHG decided to seize a market opportunity to develop a higher end Holiday Inn flag and created the Holiday Inn Resort brand.  The property on Pensacola Beach was the first new construction hotel to fly this flag.

The design for the new hotel was complete by the spring of 2008.  Jeff says, “We secured permits during the summer and got a commitment letter for financing from a regional bank in the fall.”  However, a banking crisis was looming and the bank rescinded their offer.  Jeff says, “It was horrible.  We’d invested so much.  It could’ve killed Innisfree by Julian’s tenacity saved us.”

Julian visited forty-nine banks in search of alternate financing and got forty-nine rejections.  Then he heard a rumor that Pen Air Federal Credit Union had closed a business load.  Jeff says, “This seemed extraordinary.  Credit unions usually focus on consumer lending.”  However, the rumor proved true and Julian sold Pen Air on the project.  A short time later, he serendipitously found himself seated beside Debbie Calder, Senior Vice President at Navy Federal Credit Union, at a luncheon.  He eventually secured Navy Federal’s participation as well.

In March 2009, Julian convinced Superior Bank in Birmingham to lead the load with the participation of the credit unions.  Exuberance and optimism soared at Innisfree and then quickly came crashing down when their general contractor lost their bonding capacity.  Jeff says, “We were three weeks away from closing the most difficult load we’d ever obtained and now suddenly we didn’t have a contractor.”

In July, Innisfree finally closed a $38 million dollar development load to build the Holiday Inn Resort and signed a $21 million dollar contract with contractors Robbins and Morton.  Jeff says, “The first day we met Robbins and Morton I said, we are going to build this hotel for $19,750,000.  They didn’t believe we could do it for so little.  Construction began in August.  The Holiday Inn Resort opened on February 25th on budget.

Jeff says, “Winning this award is recognition from International Hotel Group, a company that deals with thousands of hotel developers that the principals underlying our work are sound.  Our developments on Pensacola Beach have incrementally deepened the market, spurring economic development,  during the last decade.  In 2000, the RevPAR (revenue available per room) on Pensacola Beach was $50.  Ten years later it doubled and in big part because of our developments.  This level of success is off the charts.”

Harlan attributes the company success to its’ leader.  When asked how the company could possibly survive and thrive in the face of economic crisis and numerous climatic disasters he says bluntly, “Julian is how we survive.  He was baptized by fire and provided the tenacious leadership and the courage we needed to keep going.  I think Innisfree is Julian and Kim.  He keeps us on course and she keeps him on course.  They deserve this award.”

Julian credits Innisfree’s success to his professional development team and entrepreneurial management tactics.  He says, “Our aggressive revenue management, paired with our emphasis on efficiency, productivity and excellence in service, has allowed us to continue our pattern of growth during a time when much of our competition is unable to do so.

This is all good news for the Gulf Coast region, which is benefiting greatly from the job creation spurred by Innisfree developments.

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