IN the depths of the recession, a cartoon made the rounds in the executive offices of the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain. “It showed a guy trying to change the name on the sign above his hotel from Ritz to Fritz,” said Simon Cooper, the president of Ritz-Carlton, which is the top luxury brand of Marriott International.

While the recession cut deeply into business and leisure travel at all hotels, luxury hotels were hit the hardest. It didn’t help the Ritz that its name was a symbol of the rich life.

Now, however, that segment is reporting the strongest recovery. For the week that ended May 1, the luxury hotel niche reported the sharpest increases in both occupancy and revenue per available room of any segment in the domestic hotel industry, according to Smith Travel Research, the hotel financial analysis firm.

“The recovery is stronger in luxury than in any other segment of the hotel business,” Mr. Cooper said. “This time last year we were taking the toughest hit, primarily because of the cancellations of groups after A.I.G. and all the media attention that created.” Everybody, he added, “was being very circumspect about how they spent their money, and where.”

The so-called A.I.G. effect crushed many areas of travel spending after reports that the insurance giant American International Group ran up a bill of about $440,000 on an incentives retreat in October 2008 at the St. Regis Monarch Beach, a Southern California resort hotel, shortly after the company accepted an $85 billion federal bailout. The bill for the retreat included $23,000 for spa treatments and $16,000 for the presidential suite.

The only other segment of business travel that was hit as hard as luxury hotels during the downturn was the private jet industry, where sales plummeted after a period of record profits. The luxury hotel business went through a similar trajectory in recent years. The business aviation industry has also begun to recover in recent months.

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After increasing 1.4 percent during March, the Hotel Industry Pulse Index jumped 2.5 percent in April, according to economic research firm e-forecasting.com in conjunction with STR.

The Hotel Industry Pulse Index, or HIP, is a composite indicator that gauges business activity in the United States hotel industry in real time, similar to a GDP measure. The latest monthly change brought the index to a reading of 85.5. The index was set to equal 100 in 2000.

HIP’s six-month growth rate, which historically has signaled turning points in U.S. hotel business activity, continued to show improvement. After 20 months of the six-month growth rate being negative, the rate has gone up three consecutive months. During April, the six-month growth hit 9.1 percent, more than doubling March’s increase of 4 percent. This compares with a long-term growth rate of 3.2 percent, which is the same as the 38-year average annual growth rate of the industry’s gross domestic product. “As noted last month, using the same method as the National Bureau of Economic Research, whose dating committee officially determines turning points in the U.S. economy, we believe the hotel industry recession ended in November of 2009,” said Maria Simos, CEO of e-forecasting.com. “This month’s report suggests extremely strong fundamentals with the indicator, and the six-month growth rate is making a major turnaround.”

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The Harris County Hospital District is opening the new Martin Luther King Jr. Health Center on May 14.

The new 64,000-square-foot building replaces the previous 15,000-square-foot center located within HCHD’s Quentin Mease Community Hospital.

As a primary care facility for residents in southern Harris County, the old center provided 55,000 patient visits a year. In the new location, the health center can accommodate 100,000 patients a year.

The new health care center houses 60 exam rooms and will provide a range of health care services including primary care for both adults and children, dental, ophthalmology, obstetrics, pharmacy and laboratory.

The HCHD provides more than 1.4 million health care visits each year to residents of Harris County. The hospital district operates Ben Taub General Hospital, Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital, Quentin Mease Community Hospital and 13 community health centers, including the nation’s first free-standing HIV treatment facility.

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WASHINGTON — A surprisingly busy month for U.S. factories and a surge in home buying are the latest signs that the economic recovery is picking up.

Orders to U.S. factories rose 1.3 percent in March, the Commerce Department said today. That was much better than the 0.1 percent decline analysts had expected. Excluding the volatile transportation sector, orders gained 3.1 percent, the biggest increase since August 2005.

Widespread activity in many industries offset a big drop in commercial aircraft. The increase offers further evidence that U.S. manufacturers are helping drive the recovery.

A separate report showed that more people signed contracts on previously owned homes in March than was expected. The jump was in large part the result of tax incentives that have propelled the housing market this spring.

The National Association of Realtors said its seasonally adjusted index of sales agreements for previously occupied homes rose 5.3 percent from a month earlier to a reading of 102.9. It was the highest level since October and a 21 percent increase from the same month a year earlier. The index provides an early measurement of sales activity because there is usually a one- to two- month lag between a sales contract and a completed deal.

The two reports offered more evidence that the recovery is strengthening. They also follow a government report Monday that said consumers stepped up their spending in March by the largest amount in five months. As evidence of that trend, MasterCard Inc. on today said its first-quarter profit jumped 24 percent as more shoppers are feeling comfortable enough about the economy and their jobs to reach for the plastic again.

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Thirty percent of Harris County homes declined in market value this year, as the area’s overall tax base dropped for the first time in at least two decades, officials announced Thursday.

The reduced tax revenue will likely require substantial budget cuts for the 600 taxing entities in the county, including cities, school districts, community colleges and municipal utility districts.

Harris County tax rolls, buffeted by residential foreclosures and business failures, are expected to decrease more than $11 billion for 2010. The overall decline represents a drop of more than 4 percent from last year.

Jim Robinson, who heads the Harris County Appraisal District, said only 1 percent of residences, most of them in the Katy and Cypress-Fairbanks areas, rose in market value. Hardest hit were homes worth more than $1 million and those worth between $80,000 and $150,000.

Notices of the preliminary valuations for residences are being mailed to homeowners, who will have until June 1 to file protests.

On the Harris County tax table, apartments, industrial real estate and commercial properties led the decline. Apartments and commercial properties dropped 10 percent and industrial properties dropped 11 percent.

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Read more: PKF: Houston hotels will see drop in revenue in 2010 – Houston Business Journal:

Oil prices rose near $84 a barrel today as the dollar weakened and oil traders shrugged off weak job news and a bigger-than-expected build in crude inventories.

Benchmark crude for May delivery climbed by $1.39 to settle at $83.76 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

“The bottom line is this is just a market that’s advancing in a relatively thin pre-holiday atmosphere,” said oil analyst Jim Ritterbusch. “The market is zeroing in on the fact that the dollar is weak.”

Even a surprisingly poor jobs report didn’t pull down oil prices. Payroll company ADP said employers slashed 23,000 private-sector jobs in March. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters forecast the report would show employers added 40,000 jobs during the month.

“This bad employment report reinforces the notion that interest rates will stay low for a longer period of time, thereby putting downward pressure on the U.S. dollar and upward pressure on oil prices,” said Phil Flynn, an analyst with PFGBest.

Flynn expects the Fed will not raise interest rates until the job market improves. The weaker greenback makes crude oil cheaper for holders of other currencies.

Crude prices trimmed some gains after the Energy Information Administration said crude inventories rose by 2.9 million barrels last week. Analysts expected a build of 2.65 million barrels.

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PORT ARTHUR, TX, February 24, 2010 – Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services, the nation’s largest real estate investment services firm, has announced the sale of Hampton Inn & Suites, a 72 room hospitality property located in Port Arthur, TX, according to Brent Smith, Regional Manager of the firm’s Houston office. The asset commanded a listing price of $7,700,000.

Michael Yu and Rahul Bijlani, investment specialists in Marcus & Millichap’s Houston office, had the exclusive listing to market the property on behalf of the seller, a Texas based partnership.  The buyer, a Maryland based partnership was also secured and represented by Yu and Bijlani. 

Hampton Inn & Suites is located at 7660 Memorial Boulevard.  It was built in 2007 and sits on 1.619 acres of land.

With more than 1,300 investment professionals in offices nationwide, Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services is the largest firm specializing in commercial real estate investment services in the nation. Marcus & Millichap closed 3,756 transactions in 2008, the highest of any commercial real estate brokerage firm. Founded in 1971, the firm has perfected a powerful system for marketing properties that combines product specialization, local market expertise, the industry’s most comprehensive research, state-of-the-art technology and relationships with the largest pool of qualified investors nationally.

www.MarcusMillichap.com