HVMG Dives Into Coworking
It's been quite the week for Hospitality Ventures Management Group CEO Robert Cole and SVP of acquisitions and business development Mary Beth Cutshall: opening the Hyatt Atlanta Perimeter at Villa Christina, closing on the Doubletree by Hilton Deerfield Beach in Boca Raton on behalf of Garrison Investments, and flying in for the NYU hospitality conference. (That's a whirlwind trip, with plenty of hotel options.) There’s even more on the plate for the Atlanta-based company, which will also be managing the 230 Peachtree Street Hotel Indigo in the city upon its 2015 completion (Robert tells us it's currently moving its office tenants to the top floors as it preps floors two through nine for redevelopment into hotel). HVMG also recently formed a strategic alliance with Gabriel Holdings as the preferred hotel management company and JV partner for its planned GH Hospitality Fund I, which is targeting $100M in assets over the next year.
Even more unique is its alliance with Serendipity Labs; together, they'll open and operate commercial and hotel-based shared workspaces in hub cities, beginning in downtown Chicago this fall, Robert tells us. While coworking is known as an office-based industry, he says it’s also perfect for hotels looking to get a revenue boost from underutilized lobby, meeting, and biz center spaces. (It’s a no-set formula that uses as little as 3,000 SF.) Mary Beth says HVMG’s own HQ in Atlanta is already tight, so when colleagues fly in from elsewhere, such a model would give them 24/7 access to as-needed offices and collaborative space. And yet with all this work—and five kids—Robert has not missed a Jets game in 30 years (even his sons are into it). Mary Beth is training for the 50-mile Pelotonia bike ride with Rockbridge in Ohio to raise money for cancer; she and her two teens are also avid travelers, visiting places like Patagonia, Chile, Buenos Aires, and Thailand.
