HOTELS: Select Service's Record 2014
2014 will be a record year for select-service hotel buys, with low interest rates and the third consecutive year of large RevPAR increases, predicts JLL Hotels managing director Al Calhoun, here with the legendary Frankie Avalon (left) in California. (Forget beach blanket bingo... the party's moved to the hotel pool.) Trends: cap rates declining nearly 100 bps, while large portfolios trade in the high 7% and individual properties in the low 8% range. Three players to watch: REITs, who want urban, upscale assets in high-barrier-to-entry markets; private equity, which is looking for large portfolios it can leverage up; and local hotel management companies. Al loves that institutional players are finally paying attention to what he's seen for over two decades: diversity, stability, efficiency, and cash-flow dependability. He and his team recently arranged the $24M sale of the four-story, 106-room SpringHill Suites by Marriott Portland Hillsboro on behalf of a W.P. Carey REIT affiliate, Watermark Capital Partners, and Montclair Hotel Investors; the buyer was RLJ Lodging Trust.
