News
HOT FOR HOTELS
December 2, 2010
| Hotels are back—just ask Jeffrey Horwitz, co-head of Proskauer Rose’s lodging and gaming group. His firm has over $2B worth of hotel deals in various stages right now, he told B’nai B’rith Real Estate Unit guests yesterday over lunch at the Cornell Club. |
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| “Deals are happening, people are buying and selling, and investment and lending is returning,” Jeff says. And it’s not just outside the US anymore. DC is the No. 1 domestic hospitality market, according to a recent report by Brookings Institution and the London School of Economics, he points out, but NYC remains tremendously attractive to the rest of the world and we’ve survived “relatively okay.” |
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| Jeff, with chapter board members: Zlokower Co’s Harry Zlokower, BDO’s Stuart Eisenberg, Grubb & Ellis’ Bob Shapiro, Sklar Realty Group’s Lydia Sklar, Paramount Realty USA’s Misha Haghani, Ben-Dor Group’s Arie Ben-Dor, and Hofheimer, Gartlir, and Gross’ Jerry Morganstern. Next year and in 2012, the wave of debt maturities will come home to roost, he says, but banks have taken some pain and will finance new asset transfers. For investors, hotels are still a high-spread way to make money. This year, we saw REITs step up to the plate for purchases, but more blind-pool than traditional. NY is an “amazing story” of a segmented market, with room rates at the upper echelon like the St. Regis not much higher than the Hilton Garden Inns, because of high demand for the latter. Ultimately, the city will be the transaction leader, he predicts. |
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| A welcome comparison: This year, there are more deals than holiday parties, says attendee Mark Koppelmen of Horizon Land Services (left, with Hofheimer’s Sharron Zimmer, Grubb & Ellis’ Robert Mayer, Hofheimer’s Jules Levy, Creative Funding Group’s Bruce Haber, and architect Jeffrey Simon). In the title industry, he’s been seeing a steady stream of 10 to 12 closings per week, with the market coming back in spurts. He’s particularly bullish on Texas(sounds right), where he says commercial and residential are hot as the weather. After yesterday’s chilly and torrential downpour, we wouldn’t mind 70 and sunny. |
