About

La Samanna – St. Maarten

Our Mission

LWHA is the leading hospitality valuation and advisory services firm focused on hotels, resorts, gaming properties, and conference center assets worldwide. Our executives have more than 70 years of combined broad hotel experience. We are passionate about serving our clients with the utmost professionalism, and providing high quality, unbiased due diligence in a timely and cost effective manner. Our professionals are known for consistently delivering a premier level of service and work product to our valued clientele.

Executive Spotlight

President & CEO

Daniel H. Lesser

The firm was founded by Daniel H. Lesser, a renowned authority on hotel feasibility and valuation. Mr. Lesser brings more than 35 years of expertise in a wide range of hospitality operational, counseling, valuation, advisory, and transactional services. He is a highly sought-after expert who is widely published and a frequent speaker at leading hotel and real estate conferences. Mr. Lesser is also a recurrent lecturer at prestigious institutions of higher education including: Cornell University, Columbia University, and New York University.

Chief Operating Officer, Principal

Evan Weiss

Evan Weiss serves as Chief Operating Officer, Principal of LW Hospitality Advisors. Previously, Mr. Weiss was an associate at CBRE Hotels, where he was awarded Silver and Gold production awards during each year of his tenure. He also received the Valuation Services Professional of the Year Award for the Tri-State region in 2007. Prior to joining CBRE, Mr. Weiss held the executive position of Director of Operations for CARINO Hotels & Resorts in New York, a sales and marketing firm representing 75 luxury hotels throughout the globe. Mr. Weiss was the first official hire for LWHA and grew the entity by recruiting twenty professionals around the world.

President, LWHA Asset Management Group

Gary Isenberg

Gary Isenberg is President – LWHA® Asset Management Group, with more than 35 years of diversified hospitality real estate experience in hotel management, development, finance, and asset management. He leads the group’s execution of asset management and advisory services, working closely with the teams to exceed the client’s investment expectations. Over his extensive career in hospitality real estate, Gary has overseen more than $15 billion of hotel investments, including all major family of brands, spanning all chain-scales and hotel asset classes, along with a wide variety of independent and boutique hotel properties.

Managing Director

Tony Jenkins

Tony Jenkins serves as Managing Director for LW Hospitality Advisors, bringing more than 25 years of experience in a wide range of hospitality operational, valuation and advisory services. He provides services to corporate, institutional and individual clients on many facets of hospitality real estate including: expert testimony, site evaluation, highest and best use analysis, appraisals, and feasibility and market studies. Most recently, Mr. Jenkins served as Vice President with PKF Consulting USA. He is also a member of the International Society of Hospitality Consultants (ISHC) and serves on the Valuation Committee of the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF).

Senior Managing Director

Jonathan Jaeger

Jonathan Jaeger serves as a Managing Director with LW Hospitality Advisors. Prior to joining LWHA, Mr. Jaeger was Vice President and head of the New York Practice for Pinnacle Advisory Group. During his tenure, Mr. Jaeger was involved in the execution of over 300 consulting and valuation assignments throughout the United States. Prior to his advisory career, Mr. Jaeger held various operational and accounting/finance positions with Starwood Hotels & Resorts and Kimpton Hotels & Resorts. Additionally, Mr. Jaeger is a designated member of the Appraisal Institute (MAI), an active member of the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA), and a Development Coach for the United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA).

Managing Director

Mark Lukens

Mark Lukens serves as Managing Director for LW Hospitality Advisors, bringing more than 25 years of experience in a wide range of hospitality operational, development/acquisitions, valuation and advisory services. He provides services to corporate, institutional and individual clients on many facets of hospitality real estate including: expert testimony, site evaluation, highest and best use analysis, appraisals, property tax assessment appeal evaluations, and feasibility and market studies. Most recently, Mr. Lukens served as Senior Vice President with HREC, and previously held senior positions with Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, Wyndham Worldwide, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, HVS International, and PKF Consulting.

Director

Eric Hansen

Eric Hansen currently serves as Director with LW Hospitality Advisors®, bringing more than 25 years of experience in a wide range of hospitality valuation, advisory, and development services. He provides services to corporate, institutional and individual clients on many facets of hospitality real estate including expert testimony, site evaluation, highest and best use analysis, appraisals, and feasibility and market studies. Most recently Mr. Hansen served as President of Distinct Valuation and Consulting Group, Inc, a hospitality consultancy he founded in 2017.

Executive Vice President

Sean Cuthbertson

Sean Cuthbertson currently serves as Executive Vice President with LW Hospitality Advisors bringing more than 14 years of experience in appraisal, appraisal review and numerous other real estate consulting services. Mr. Cuthbertson was previously a senior commercial appraiser with M&T Bank where he completed internal review assignments on a wide range of property types, managed the execution and delivery of various portfolio appraisal projects and performed quarterly market research for decision making purposes by senior management. Prior to his time with the bank, Mr. Cuthbertson was a senior appraiser with CBRE, Inc. in New York where he performed market value appraisals, highest and best use analyses, feasibility and market studies on a wide range of property types.

The LWHA Advantage

Hotels are complex real estate assets often intertwined with business concerns that can only be appropriately underwritten and analyzed by dedicated lodging experts. LWHA is staffed with career hospitality specialists focused exclusively on the lodging and gaming sectors. All members of the firm are graduates of renowned hotel schools with professional experience in a wide variety of esteemed hotel, restaurant, and food and beverage companies. Our staff provides extensive lodging operations, valuation, advisory, and asset management expertise.

LWHA professionals are graduates of renowned hotel schools including:

And have been employed in a wide variety of corporate, management, and operational positions at all types of brand and independent lodging, hotel, restaurant, and food and beverage companies including: