The developers won a critical $7 million loan in 2001 from Boston Connects, the organization that oversees the Empowerment Zone funds, federal funds for business and job development in the inner city.

The loan allowed the developers to then attract private financing despite a tight lending climate due to the economic downturn and the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

With the loan came requirements that the developers hire at least 35 percent of their employees from the Empowerment Zone, which spans from the Seaport District to Mattapan and covers Boston’s lower-income communities.

The developers responded aggressively, partnering with l’Alianza Hispana, Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries and a handful of other community groups to conduct job training for Empowerment Zone residents. They held a job fair, collecting résumés from approximately 300 people.

The result? Sixty-eight percent of the full-time employees at the Hampton Inn are residents of the Empowerment Zone, many of them from Dorchester, Roxbury and South Boston. The developers also employed a high percentage of people of color in the construction of the complex.

“The project helps fulfill our mission very directly,” said Boston Connects Executive Director Christine Araujo. “One of our goals is job training and the other is job creation.”

The developers made sure they won the support of nearby residents early on. The developers conducted 30 community meetings in the South End and Roxbury over the course of two months during the initial phases of the development, and gave anyone who wanted it a seat on the Crosstown Council Advisory Committee.

“In Boston, we always have this contentious model where either the mayor is behind it and the community isn’t, or vice versa,” said Sykes. “In this case, it was not that way.”

Sykes hopes to make the public-private partnerships that allowed Crosstown to move forward a national model.

To further that aim, Sykes became a principal at the New Boston Fund, a major real estate/ private equity fund that is looking to develop similar projects with help from Empowerment Zone money in other cities.

“I am going to other Empowerment Zones and looking to do similar things in other cities — help improve communities, create jobs and transform neighborhoods,” said Sykes. “There are many Empowerment Zones that haven’t used much of their money.”

Sykes will also remain a principal at Crosstown Partners as Crosstown Partners seeks funding for an office building on land the city owns next to the Hampton Inn.

Crosstown Partners have signed a ground lease on the land, and they aim to build 280,000 square feet of office space and 30,000 square feet of retail space at the corner of Albany Street and Mass. Ave.

An estimated 1,200 jobs would be located at the site, about half of them new jobs, according to developers. Sykes and his team aim to emphasize community hiring, and are working to secure financing and a critical mass of tenants in order to move forward with the office complex.

Meanwhile, at the shining, state-of-the-art Hampton Inn, the staff are beginning their long-term campaign to woo customers.

“I want us to accommodate and be the preferred location for guests around the world when they visit Boston,” said Phillip Tucker, the hotel’s general manager.

As a place of rest for visitors to this week’s Democratic National Convention, the Hampton Inn got its first chance to impress the world.