HotelsMag May/June 2025 | Page 42

The reimagined, highceiling Presidential Suite at Salamander DC offers views of the Potomac River. Photo credit: Matt Dandy
RENOVATIONS

ON THE POTOMAC

SALAMANDER COLLECTION PUSHES TO HEAD OF D. C. CLASS.
By DAVID EISEN

Salamander Collection, the medley of hotels and resorts founded by and helmed by Sheila Johnson, is growing fast. So quickly that when HOTELS asked Prem Devadas, president of Salamander Collection, what the growth trajectory was for the company, his answer was

coy, if not cryptic:“ We will have some significant news to share soon, potentially as soon as this week, and will be in touch,” he said.
One week later it was official: PGA National Resort, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., had become the seventh property within Salamander
Collection, and the second to host a PGA Tour event, the Cognizant Classic, joining Innisbrook, home of the Valspar Championship. A fore( tunate) turn of events.
PGA National was acquired by London-based real estate investment firm Henderson Park, which has involved
Salamander on previous deals before; namely, Salamander Washington DC, née Mandarin Oriental Washington DC, which it acquired in the summer of 2022 in conjunction with Salamander. Two years later it finished off a renovation of the hotel to imbue it with the Salamander equine essence
40 hotelsmag. com May / June 2025