New hotel management company to focus on creating value.

Combining more than 75 years of expertise, lodging industry veterans Jay Fishman, Bryan Curry, and Gary Wood have teamed up to form Associated Hotels, LLC. The new management company will concentrate largely on third-party management contracts, as well as select hotel acquisitions, and is a successor to Seymour N. Logan Associates, Inc., a Chicago family-owned real estate and hotel company dating back to 1942.

The new company's main objective is to own and operate top quality hotels where it can increase and enhance value. Associated is targeting branded and independent mid-priced to upper mid-priced properties in the Midwest. These hotels generally have between 100 and 500 rooms and could include food and beverage operations or be limited service.

Associated plans to own and/or operate 15 to 20 hotels within the next three years and to continue to offer its property owners personalized service -- with direct access to the company's three principals. Associated is looking to work with a variety of hotel owners -- including individual developers, venture capital firms, financial institutions, REITs, and insurance companies.

"We will work with owners who are committed to the quality and success of their assets and can benefit from our expertise in enhancing the revenue and overall performance of their properties," says Associated President Jay Fishman. "It is important that our owners know that they will be dealing with an Associated principal at all times."

Associated currently operates six first-class hotels with a total of 1,920 rooms that generate $50 million in annual revenue. These properties are the following: Holiday Inn Rolling Meadows (Ill.); Holiday Inn Select-Minneapolis Airport; Holiday Inn Select-St. Louis; Holiday Inn Select-Appleton, Wis.; Radisson Duluth (Minn.); and

The principals of Associated Hotels have diverse backgrounds in just about every aspect of hotel management.

Jay Fishman has 22 years of experience in the hotel industry. Prior to working with Seymour N. Logan Associates, the Chicago native was senior vice president/ hotel investments at VMS Realty Partners for more than a decade. His expertise includes the development and implementation of workout strategies, hotel repositioning, negotiation and administration of management and franchise agreements, and portfolio management.

Bryan Curry has more than 20 years of financial experience. Prior to being chief financial officer of Seymour N. Logan, he worked in public accounting and specialized in hotel and real estate auditing and taxation.

Gary Wood has more than 30 years of hospitality expertise, spent at both the individual hotel and multi-unit levels. Before joining Associated, Wood was most recently vice president of operations for Hostmark Hospitality Group, where he worked for 13 years. He spent much of his career with Holiday Inn Worldwide, where his experience included food and beverage, sales and marketing, general management, and multi-unit operations.