JULY 16, 2008. Jones Lang LaSalle HotelSao Paulos has announced that it has opened an office in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Ricardo Mader Rodrigues and Manuela Gorni, along with seven top hotel specialists, have joined the new Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels Brazil team.

The addition of the Brazil office expands Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels' existing strategic advisory and asset management team to 80 hotel professionals globally. This move completes Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels' BRIC strategy, whereby the firm now has dedicated hospitality expertise in Brazil, Russia, India and China.

"This expansion has come just at the right time for our clients. Not only is Brazil's domestic economy improving, but the country has now received an investment-grade credit rating by S&P and Fitch," said Arthur Adler, managing director and CEO-Americas, Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels. "Our existing global infrastructure and resources, combined with the Brazil team's local market dominance, will allow us to advise our global clients as they seek to expand and move capital into South America."

Previously, Mr. Mader and Ms. Gorni, with some fifty years of combined hotel advisory experience, were partners of Hotel Investment Advisors (HIA), a strategic advisory and asset management consulting group in Sao Paulo. As such, they were the first in Brazil to offer specialized consulting services for the hotel industry, including asset management, operations analysis, market studies for new hotel developments, valuations and strategic planning for hotel companies planning to expand or establish a presence in Brazil, Chile, Argentina and throughout South America. The rest of the team consists of consultants with extensive experience in the hospitality industry, having worked in hotels, large hotel development and consulting companies in Latin America.

This new team joins Jones Lang LaSalle's existing 600 commercial real estate professionals in Brazil. Established in Brazil in 1996, the firm has offices in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Curitiba.

Mr. Arthur de Haast, global CEO, sees this move as another step towards meeting Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels' global goals, "This expansion fortifies our ability to achieve our global objective of being first in all markets in which we operate. It secures a robust footprint from which we can grow further in Brazil; supplementing our strong global platform of strategic advisory services for international clients."