Concord Hospitality Enterprises, managers of more than 80 hotels in North America, has committed US$355 million in active development on 15 hotels in 2012 and expects to reach the 14,000-room threshold as a third-party operator and owner.
The company said will also continue to expand its third-party management portfolio, focusing primarily on the full-service sector and premium-branded select-service hotels.
“Last year we opened or broke ground on five new properties and assumed management of seven, which was a robust year considering the stagnant economy,” said Mark Laport, president and CEO. “For 2012, we expect to more than double our development pipeline. Operationally, we will focus on adding more premium brand select-service and full-service hotels to our third-party managed portfolio, such as the DoubleTree in Albuquerque and Sheraton in Oklahoma City, which we were selected to manage late in 2011.”
Concord, which historically has focused primarily on the Marriott brand family, is expanding its brand exposure to include Hyatt, Hilton, Starwood and upscale Choice flags. Laport cited several Cambria Suites and Hyatt House projects currently in Concord’s development pipeline, as well as the recent agreement to develop a 250-room Marriott hotel in Sugar Loaf in Atlanta as current examples of a more diversified portfolio mix.
In addition to the US$355 million already committed for 2012 by Concord, the company has nearly a half billion dollars of additional projects in the early stages of the development pipeline. “Due to our continued success, we have been fortunate to significantly expand the number of our investment partners,” Laport said. “We continue to find niche markets that have strong economic upside when teaming up with the right premium branded hotel. We believe that development and acquisition environment has improved steadily than what we have seen in the past five years and intend to capitalize on opportunities.”