Marcus Hotels and Resorts to Reflag Wyndham Milwaukee to InterContinental Brand

Business Wire, Nov 20, 2006

MILWAUKEE -- Marcus Hotels and Resorts, a division of The Marcus Corporation (NYSE:MCS), today announced that it will convert the 220-room Wyndham Milwaukee Center that it acquired last year to the luxury InterContinental brand by January 1, 2007. The reflagged InterContinental Milwaukee will be the city's second luxury hotel and the first internationally branded luxury property.

Located at the corner of Kilbourn and Water Streets in the heart of the city's entertainment district, the hotel has just completed a major refurbishment. "We have created a sophisticated hotel with a unique position in the market and we selected the InterContinental Brand because of its proven track record in delivering a powerful distribution marketing system," said Bill Otto, president of Marcus Hotels and Resorts. "We completely repositioned the personality of the hotel, from the sense of arrival to the guest rooms, from the meeting space to the upscale food and beverage concepts."

"This will be the 18th InterContinental hotel in the United States, which puts this hotel in very exclusive company. The brand's global reputation for ain the know' service and commitment to quality, coupled with our proprietary management and marketing systems, will differentiate the hotel from all others in the Milwaukee market."

"The InterContinental Milwaukee is a fantastic and quality addition to our North American InterContinental Brand portfolio and will be the fourth InterContinental to open in the United States in 2006 following Kansas City, Baltimore and Boston," said Kirk Kinsell, SVP and chief development officer, InterContinental Hotels Group, the Americas. "We remain highly selective in choosing operators to manage the InterContinental Brand, and Marcus Hotels and Resorts has a long, proven track record in hotel management excellence. We look forward to the opportunity to expand our relationship with them."

In upgrading the hotel, the company's food and beverage experts created three one-of-a-kind outlets. "We believe a hotel's food and beverage operations play a major role in establishing a property's identity," Otto said. "Although just opened, these three facilities are receiving rave reviews from both locals and guests and furthering the notion with the downtown Milwaukee community of being athe' place to be."

The lobby was transformed into a trendy meeting place with the introduction of CLEAR, an upscale lounge that specializes in clear drinks and eclectic food offerings, ranging from fresh sashimi to a trio of Wisconsin butter sliders (the hotel's special take on the classic hamburger). The floor-to-ceiling windows provide passersby and guests with the perfect setting to "see and be seen."

Kil@wat on the second floor is the hotel's new upscale restaurant and showcases American cuisine. The 95-seat facility features a selection of unique dishes, including lobster pot pie with root vegetables and saffron Pernod sauce, Strauss lamb chops with parsnip puree and cranberries, and saut[c]ed organic salmon with a choice of 12 side dishes, ranging from brussel sprouts with hazel nuts to a trio of mashed potatoes.

Wednesday through Saturday, the city's in-crowd gathers at ZenDen, an exclusive hideaway. The large under-lit alabaster bar area is offset with candles. A resident D.J. discreetly keeps the lounge rocking with energy.

The hotel's 12,000 square feet of completely refurbished meeting space and 2,300 square feet of pre-function space handles groups of up to 575 people or as few as a handful in the hotel's executive board room. All 11 meeting rooms have high speed Internet access, and the hotel provides complete audio-visual support services. The hotel's large guestrooms and bathrooms were completely made over with new case goods and soft goods in a contemporary palette. All the guestrooms will offer high speed Internet access, safes large enough to accommodate laptop computers, and 32-inch LCD or 42-inch plasma screen TVs, depending upon room size. Other amenities include an indoor hot tub, a renovated fitness center and a new business center.

"The InterContinental Milwaukee is designed to meet the needs of locals and business and leisure-travel guests," Otto noted. "Our meeting facilities will attract small to mid-size groups, for business meetings as well as some of the city's premier social events, such as weddings and charity events."

About InterContinental Hotels Group

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC of the United Kingdom [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)] is the world's largest hotel group by number of rooms. InterContinental Hotels Group owns, manages, leases or franchises, through various subsidiaries, over 3,650 hotels and 543,775 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories around the world. The Group owns a portfolio of well recognized and respected hotel brands including InterContinental([R]) Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza([R]) Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn([R]) Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express([R]), Staybridge Suites([R]), Candlewood Suites([R]) and Hotel Indigo([R]), and also manages the world's largest hotel loyalty program, Priority Club([R]) Rewards with over 30 million members worldwide.