RE Seminar: Marty Collins, Founder of Gatehouse Capital Corp.

Date:  Thursday, September 3rd
When:  4:30-6:30 with reception to follow
Where:  198 Beck Center
Attire:  Business

The Cornell Real Estate Industry seminar welcomes Marty Collins, Founder, and Maria “Lela” Borrero (MPS/Real Estate ’07), Director, of Texas-based Gatehouse Capital Corp. to campus as featured speakers in the Cornell Real Estate Industry seminar this Thursday.  Their remarks will provide an inside look at hotel development and include a look at the W Hotel slated to open in December 2009 in Hollywood, California as well as the firm’s strategy for the Latin America. 

Mr. Collins is responsible for the company’s overall strategic direction,
business development and capital relations.  Mr. Collins began his
hospitality career in 1985 with Americana Hotels Corporation where he managed the systematic asset disposition of the $392 million hotel portfolio for the Bass family.  Thereafter, Marty joined the Hampstead Group, a privately held, high-yield real estate investment company where investors included Yale, Stanford, Princeton Endowment Fund, Oregon Public Employees
Retirement System, and Bass family affiliates.  Additionally, he has
engaged in advisory capacities regarding Latin American development programs, including valuation and feasibility of a $750 million commercial real estate portfolio, a venture involving high-tech digital prototype kiosks, and both acquisition and liquidation analysis for NASDQ companies.
Mr. Collins holds an undergraduate degree in liberal arts and education from University of Akron and graduate degrees in both business and liberal arts from Southern Methodist University.

Ms. Borrero, a native of Bogotá, Colombia, is a 2007 graduate of the Cornell Program in Real Estate and one of just a handful of graduates to return to the industry seminar as speaker.  Lela focuses on large, hospitality driven mixed-use projects as a Director at Gatehouse Capital and also is charged with developing the firm’s Latin strategy.  Lela has also focused in originating, underwriting and taking projects through the development process, and is currently working on the development team for the W Hollywood Hotel and Residences, which is slated to open in December, 2009.
She received a B.S in Engineering Management Systems/Operations Research at Columbia University, and then worked in management consulting at Accenture and real estate finance at Lehman Brothers prior to entering the Cornell Program in Real Estate in 2005.