Zeppelin Development Hires New Director of Hospitality Development

DENVER – Justin Anderson, formerly of the accomplished Chicago hospitality group 16” On Center, has been recently hired to the Zeppelin Development team as the Director of Hospitality Development. The Denver-based development company is known for more than four decades of visionary work, most recently focused on mixed-use projects in the RiNo (River North Art District) neighborhood. Most notable new projects include Zeppelin Station and The Source Hotel, both featuring new generation market halls.“Denver’s food and beverage scene is expanding at a rapid pace and Justin Anderson has a proven track record, most recently with the launch of a widely successful food hall in Chicago – one of the country’s top food & beverage markets,” said Kyle Zeppelin, Co-President of Zeppelin Development. “Instead of outsourcing management to an outside company or hospitality group, we have decided to bring someone on in-house, to maintain our Zeppelin culture and brace the company for future growth. Given Justin’s ability to successfully bring some of the Chicago’s most notable food, beverage and entertainment projects to fruition, it makes sense for us to expand our team with the addition of his expertise.”

photo -- Justin Anderson

Justin began his career in hospitality in 1999 and has spent almost two decades putting his experience to work, to help bring some of the most notable hospitality projects in the nation to fruition. In 2009, Justin moved from Southern California to Chicago where he found a job as a bartender at Branch 27. There he developed a working friendship with Chef John Manion. This relationship led to Justin and John working together on pop-up dinners around Chicago, where they eventually decided to adapt the pop-ups to a brick-and-mortar concept. This concept is now known as the acclaimed Latin restaurant La Sirena Clandestina, where Justin served as General Manager and Beverage Director. Until now, Justin was serving as the Director of Operations at 16” On Center’s newest and most ambitious project, Revival Food Hall, located in Chicago’s Downtown Loop.

Beginning in September 2015, Anderson began a dual role of project management and forming vendor relations in preparation of the opening of Revival Food Hall – helping to curate many aspects of the functional and operational design as well as the opening collective of tenants within the space. Since its opening, Revival has been featured in the likes of The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune and The Oregonian, amongst other international publications.”Overall, the change in landscape and lifestyle sold me, but through the many conversations I had with the Zeppelin team over the past months, I was impressed by the group’s overall vision, full transparency and dedication to shaping the growth and future of RiNo and Denver at-large, it truly got my attention,” said Anderson. “Their all-in approach to further stimulating the growth of the River North Arts District, but also keeping the integrity of the culture that still remains, shows principle – with their overall commitment to the future maturation of RiNo and seeing that the lion’s share of their future projects in both development and hospitality are slated to happen here, they are essentially betting on themselves at this point, and that approach is about as honest and admirable as you can get.”

Justin started at Zeppelin Development in early March 2017 – he will look to elevate operations and the functionality of current projects like The Source as well as future projects that are set to open this year within The Source Hotel and at Zeppelin Station, while bringing in high-profile groups and curating nationally renowned tenants. Additionally, Justin will continue to hire other directors and managers with exceptional hospitality backgrounds as Zeppelin Development dives into more food and beverage related projects, matching the growth of the Denver food scene over the next two to three years.

 

Image courtesy of Zeppelin Development

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