ISHC Pioneer Award winner implores investment community to
open their minds, shift criteria to help more women become hotel owners.
LOS ANGELES – “There are so many brilliant women out there who want to own
and develop hotels, who work in the industry and have helped many developers
achieve incredible wealth. It’s their turn.”
That was the bottom-line message from Tracy Prigmore on the
stage at ALIS last week when she was presented the 2024 International Society
of Hospitality Consultants (ISHC) Pioneer Award, recognizing an individual for
making an outstanding contribution, achievement and or improvement in the hospitality
industry.
Prigmore is the founder of TLTsolutions, a real estate
investment and development firm that provides access and insight to alternative
investments. Her mission is to empower people to build generational wealth, and
through TLTsolutions she creates opportunities for individuals, families and
entities to obtain passive income by investing in residential, multifamily and
hotel projects.
The criteria that you may apply – traditionally, for those who are qualified, if you really want more women owning and developing – can shift, even when you are at risk as a lender, for example, or an equity provider. Or you could put other things in place to evaluate that person’s ability to be successful, and not just look at their net worth or their liquidity. They can still be successful.
Tracy Prigmore
Currently, TLTsolutions has multi-million-dollar portfolio
of real estate assets under management in four states. With the firm’s launch
of its first Fund focused on hotel properties, TLTsolutions is actively
pursuing acquisitions that will more than double its portfolio.
Prigmore is also the creator of She Has a Deal, a
platform designed to create new pathways to commercial real estate ownership
and development for women by providing education, networking and investing
opportunities. She Has a Deal’s hotel investment pitch competition is creating
a pipeline of women owners and developers by preparing them to become sponsors
and lead hotel investment projects. TLTsolutions recently established SHaD
Prosperity Fund and is raising capital to fund the women led projects
originating from the pitch competition.
In accepting the ISHC award at ALIS, she talked her passion for
helping other people and being a servant leader. It’s a message she is urging
more hoteliers and the investment community to better embrace.
Among the challenges she faced when she tried to develop her
first hotel was the lack of information that would give her comfort about
taking the risk to move forward. “She Has a Deal is everything that I wish I
knew before I started, everything that I’ve learned along the way, and
everything I continue to learn each and every day as an owner, operator and
developer,” she said. “To create that playbook for others is helping them
figure out how to navigate through a hotel deal.”
Along her journey to hotel ownership, Prigmore told the ALIS
crowd about her required diligence. “It’s a difficult pathway, particularly for
women and women of color, because people have not seen women owning and
developing hotels,” she explained. “So, they look at you – and sometimes it’s
unconscious bias – and ask themselves, ‘can they do it.’ I’m here to tell you they
can.”
When asked what the investment community can do to help pave
the way for women, Prigmore referenced the biggest among many barriers – availability
of capital. “If it’s one thing you can do, recognize that there are disparities
between wealth, net worth and liquidity for women and people of color… So, the
criteria that you may apply – traditionally, for those who are qualified, if
you really want more women owning and developing – can shift, even when you are
at risk as a lender, for example, or an equity provider. Or you could put other
things in place to evaluate that person’s ability to be successful, and not
just look at their net worth or their liquidity. They can still be successful.”
Prigmore’s other important message about championing women
hotel owners: “I’d want everybody to open their minds and really think about
the fact that there are disparities. It’s not that people aren’t capable of
doing it and won’t bring amazing, innovative products and services to the
marketplace. Give them an opportunity. We’re seeing that already in other asset
classes where people have stepped up to provide equity and different capital
programs, and they’re soaring now. So, we need them in hospitality.”