Hyatt

Numerous hotel developments in the United States and abroad capitalized in the 1980s on the explosive growth of golf as a participant sport by including attractive and challenging courses. It seemed that every new resort hotel, especially in Sun Belt states such as Arizona and Florida, boasted a "championship" golf course. The reasons for the golf-and-hotel construction boom are clear. Not only do many upscale travelers choose a hotel because it has a good golf course, but many planners of business meetings and conferences select a hotel for the same reason.

In a polyglot city, people have many different descriptions of Shangri-La. To the folks leading the Society Hill Towers Owners Assocation, Shangri-La is something they already have: three 1960s-vintage towers, dressed at ground level in green and flowers, a relatively tranquil urban walk away from the small sculpture garden on the Columbus Boulevard waterfront. To protect their piece of heaven, they've pressed one lawsuit after another to block development of a riverside, 24-story, wedding-cake Hyatt 1,100 feet away from their three concrete towers.

What a scam is this proposed Hyatt hotel at Penn's Landing. A $54 million project funded by only 5 percent of the developer's own money, the rest coming from loans and tax dollars ($10 million courtesy of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Delaware River Port Authority). Better living through tax dollars. It almost makes me wish I had thought of the scheme instead of wasting so many years teaching Wordsworth and Coleridge, Keats and Shelley. So much for Beauty and History and Idealism.

Union members picket the Hilton Hotel on Route 70 in Cherry Hill, protesting the use of nonunion labor. The former Hyatt closed and reopened as the Hilton, letting employees go and rehiring only three, former union members. Barbara Renn, of the hotel workers' Local 54 of Atlantic City, exhorts the pickets to chant in support of unions. Members of other unions were also on hand for yesterday's protest.

The Hyatt Corp. has agreed to build a 1,000-room hotel as part of a more than $300 million complex that will be erected next to the city's proposed convention center complex. Mayor Goode was to make a formal announcement of the agreement later today. He also was to announce that city officials have struck a $23 million deal with the Reading Company to buy the company's land - including the train shed -on the convention center site and thus pave the way for design and construction of the center.

Several major hotel chains are making some of their rooms extensions of business travelers' offices. And the response from customers has been good. The Hyatt, Radisson, Sheraton, Wyndham and Marriott chains have made changes in their rooms that business travelers have been telling hoteliers for years that they need. Making it easy to work in a hotel room has become of paramount importance in the 1990s because of the changing habits of business travelers, industry officials say. The need to keep their competitive edge means many travelers have no choice but to work in their rooms.

If you're a frequent business traveler, would you describe yourself as a globe-trotter, a smooth sailor, world-weary or a torn traveler? Those are the categories that Hyatt Hotels Corp. has devised to classify travelers in a comprehensive and thought-provoking study it commissioned of the loves, hates, trials and tribulations of people who must spend big chunks of their lives away from home on business. What the categories mean is that some people who travel extensively are seldom stressed out by it, many who have done it for years would love to quit, and many of those who must leave children at home tend to feel guilty about the time they spend away.

OK, so it's not just the view. The opposition of some Society Hill residents to a proposed riverfront hotel is visceral as well as visual. That was clear last week at an impassioned public hearing, full of speeches and catcalls. Besides the way the 24-story Hyatt would change the view from Society Hill Towers, citizens raised questions of access, archaeology, procedure and ambience. The Towers' folk have hired a lawyer, plus other experts, to make a 400-page case against building a hotel on a site where the city has been planning one for at least six years.

No. 84 thought for sure she'd get a jump on the crowd. An hour and half later, business suit still sharply pressed, she finally headed for home. That's the way it went yesterday at a job fair that drew 900 applicants to the newly named Hilton at Cherry Hill, according to hotel general manager Bruce Wennerstrom. By March 1, the Hilton needs 80 new employees - from housekeepers to cooks to clerks - to help run the 409-room hotel. On the first day, there were more than 10 times that many waiting for interviews or to drop off job applications at the hotel, on Route 70 at Cuthbert Boulevard, Wennerstrom said.

Plans for a major hotel along Camden's riverfront cleared another hurdle yesterday when the New Jersey Economic Development Authority gave tentative approval to a Philadelphia partnership to purchase a 3.5-acre site. The developer, Camden Hotel Development Corp., consists of two Philadelphia firms, Spectacor, manager of the Spectrum, and Penn's Landing Corp., which last year bid unsuccessfully for development rights to the Penn's Landing project in Philadelphia. The two firms would contract with the Hyatt Corp.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Austin Hyatt, 25 and unassuming, has a modest goal for 2012: He wants to pitch at triple-A Lehigh Valley. "That would be the next step along the progression, I guess," Hyatt said, "so hopefully I end up there. " On Wednesday, he was bestowed the honor of starting the Phillies' first exhibition game of the spring. In a 6-1 victory over Florida State University, Hyatt tossed two scoreless innings and struck out three. It was his first time pitching in front of Charlie Manuel and Rich Dubee, and for a pitcher who won't have many chances this spring to make an impression, he was pleased.

Playing at: Reading (AA) Position: Starting pitcher Bats: Right. Throws: Right. Height: 6-3. Weight: 205. Age: 25. Born: May 23, 1986, in Atlanta. How obtained: Drafted in the 15th round in 2009. This season: Is 6-3 with a 4.03 ERA in 12 starts . . . Is tied for second among Eastern League pitchers in wins, trailing only Harrisburg's Brad Peacock . . . Has gotten bounced around lately, surrendering 16 earned runs in his last 27 innings . . . Will start tonight at Bowie (Md., tickets: 301-464-4865)

Hyatt Regency Philadelphia at Penn's Landing has partnered with local organizations for the Hyatt Helping Haiti fund-raiser on Valentine's Day, benefiting American Red Cross' relief efforts. By buying a ticket to Sunday's event, 1 to 4 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom, families can help the Hyatt reach its goal of $10,000. The fund-raiser will feature a petting zoo from the Philadelphia Zoo, face painting, arts and crafts, video and arcade games, a moon bounce, and more. Mummers and Eagles cheerleaders will be there, and fun-filled food stations, included with admission, feature decorate-your-own cupcakes for kids.

Nearly three months after Harry Kalas' death, the broadcaster's widow is selling their home, which sits in a cul-de-sac on 2.3 acres in Upper Providence Township, Delaware County. Eileen Kalas has retained Long & Foster's Christine Clark Real Estate Team to sell the four-bedroom, three-bath rancher off Providence Road. Asking price is $625,000. The couple had lived in the house since 1986. "Like Harry, it's not anything too pretentious," real estate agent Christine Clark told me. The house, which borders Ridley Creek State Park, has two full kitchens.

Daniel Keating 3d, a local builder and developer, is putting forth a plan this week that, as he put it, would transform Penn's Landing into "a celebration of fun" with cafes and entertainment in a parklike setting. The centerpiece would be a towering Ferris wheel, a replica of the landmark London Eye. It would have glass-enclosed compartments - each the size of a large living room - instead of open seats. The compartments could be rented for a few revolutions or an evening-long party.

California's power crunch has prompted many hotels to start assessing energy surcharges. Now a San Francisco law firm has filed a class-action suit against several big hotel chains, contending that charging extra for electricity is illegal. The firm of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein filed separate lawsuits against the Starwood, Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott hotel chains, challenging the hotels' practice of adding undisclosed energy surcharges to room bills. The suits, three filed in San Francisco Superior Court and one against Marriott in Los Angeles Superior Court, allege that the chains "repeatedly breached their contracts with customers and committed unfair and deceptive business practices by imposing 'energy surcharges' above and beyond the basic room rates that customers are quoted when they make their reservations.

Following his teammates off the lacrosse field under a mid-April sun, Michael Hyatt stopped to adjust his equipment and smiled to himself. Academy of the New Church had just won its Friends Schools League opener with visiting George School, 9-4, but that wasn't the reason for the senior tricaptain's grin. The Lions had played to the best of their ability, and that was enough to make him happy. "I smiled after the loss to Marple Newtown, too," the defenseman said as his blue eyes glinted in the afternoon sunshine.

Throughout John Lennon's 40 years, he was as prolific an artist as he was a songwriter. He'd sketch whenever the inspiration hit him - on his honeymoon, during meetings with lawyers, while teaching his son Sean how to read. Today, 19 years after a disturbed fan's bullet ended the life of the most outspoken Beatle, his widow is keeping his artistic legacy alive by exhibiting a traveling collection of his work. "Music for the Eyes: The Artwork of John Lennon," at the Park Hyatt at the Bellevue tomorrow through Sunday, features more than 100 pieces created by Lennon from 1968 to 1980.

Developers of the long-delayed Hyatt Regency Hotel at Penn's Landing say they will resume work on the project within two weeks, meaning six Center City hotels will be under construction at the same time in anticipation of the Republican national convention in July 2000. Five of those hotels, plus one that opened last year, have all been kickstarted by $100 million in financial aid from the city. "This means the public sector has done exactly what it said it would," said Robert A. Fina, senior vice president of the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp.

Charles Hyatt, the township's fire marshal for the last 16 months, has resigned to avoid being fired, Supervisors Chairman Rick Fidler said yesterday. The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday night to accept Hyatt's resignation from the part-time position. The departure follows a township investigation into whether Hyatt had fulfilled his duties, Fidler said, but he would not elaborate. "The issue was administrative in nature," Fidler said in an interview yesterday.