Senior Managing Director, HVS San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas

With her extensive history in the industry and keen understanding of the markets, Suzanne R. Mellen, MAI, CRE, FRICS, ISHC, sets new standards for hospitality and gaming valuation.

Suzanne is the Senior Managing Director – Practice Leader of HVS. She has unparalleled experience, having appraised thousands of hotels, gaming assets, and related real estate throughout the world over the past 40 years. She specializes in complex hotel and casino feasibility issues and is nationally recognized for her industry expertise. In 2012 and 2013, she led the valuation of several high-profile multi-billion dollar hotel portfolios. In that time she also developed an expertise in the valuation of casinos for assessment purposes and recently testified as an expert witness in one of the nation’s largest casino property tax cases.

Suzanne opened the second office of HVS in 1985, locating in San Francisco to expand the firm’s hospitality valuation services to the West Coast. She also led HVS’ expansion to Las Vegas (2009) and Los Angeles (2013). Suzanne has developed innovative appraisal methodologies such as a mortgage-equity income capitalization formula for variable income properties, a refinancing model for hotel investments, and a methodology for valuing the real property component of casinos in Pennsylvania, where gaming has been newly established. As an in-demand presenter for conferences throughout the United States, Suzanne has spoken at numerous industry events that include annual appearances at JMBM’s Meet the Money and the Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS).

Suzanne holds the following designations: MAI (Appraisal Institute), CRE (The Counselors of Real Estate), FRICS (Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors), and ISHC (International Society of Hospitality Consultants). Her professional experience includes consulting and appraisal positions with HVS New York, Morgan Guaranty Trust, Laventhol & Horwath, and Helmsley-Spear Hospitality Services, Inc. in New York City and Harley-Little Associates in Toronto, Canada. She gained her operational experience at the Plaza Hotel in New York. Suzanne earned her B.S. degree in Hotel Administration from Cornell University.