Hotel giant Hilton Worldwide has named fast-growing Vancouver hotel owner-operator SilverBirch Hotels & Resorts and CEO Steve Giblin as its developer of the year.
SilverBirch and Giblin won the honour in the "multi-brand" category, which is for those who have developed hotels within more than one Hilton brand, at the 2011 Hilton development awards.
"There are a number of criteria that go into winning the award, but at its core is innovative design," Giblin told Business in Vancouver August 21.
He then explained that one SilverBirch project, developed in conjunction with Great-West Life, combines hotel, retail and residential space in Halifax.
SilverBirch is investing $62 million in that redevelopment on the site of what was the Citadel Halifax Hotel.
"Unlike the renovations we've recently done at the Mariott Vancouver Downtown, in Halifax we tore down the hotel and are building two new ones," Giblin said.
One of those new hotels will be a Homewood Suites by Hilton, which is Hilton's international brand of upscale, all-suite, residential-style hotels. The other Halifax hotel that SilverBirch is developing will carry the Hampton Hotels brand and be a mid-priced offering.
Giblin told Business in Vancouver last month that he plans to expand his hotel chain to 39 hotels by 2016 from its current 21 properties.
