Tim Dixon, owner-developer of the award-winning Iron Horse Hotel in Milwaukee and lately a partner to Landmark owner Halsey Minor, spoke to the Lifestyle/Boutique Hotel Development Conference in Miami yesterday and told the crowd that "boutiques" are "kicking the crap out of" national chain hotels and that the key to success in developing hotels is getting enough "funky money" (tax credits and other government grants).
Asked later if the plan to open the Landmark was on track, Dixon told an attendee the project is in "an A+ location. It just needs to be finished." The ponytailed developer also told the conference that the Iron Horse, a hotel designed for the biker crowd, was recently illegitimately moved to #2 in the local "TripAdvisor" rankings in Milwaukee because a competitor with inferior user ratings bought banner ads from TripAdvisor, "a corrupt" travel website.