Maki Bara: ‘Invest in yourself’

NEW YORK CITY – Chartres Lodging just celebrated its 23^rd anniversary and Co-Founder Maki Bara vividly remembers the start when she was working with partner Rob Kline, making a lot of money for someone else. It was then that she realized “investing in yourself is the best way to invest.”

Today, some $3.8 billion in investment later, the private investment firm is going strong, having just acquired and now repositioning the Lum hotel near SoFi Stadium and the Hollywood Park development in Los Angeles.

In this video interview, she also talks about plans for repositioning the Lum as well as the keys to recently landing a $300 million CMBS loan to refinance debt tied to the 1,841-key Sheraton Dallas, the largest hotel in Texas.

When considering the dealmaking environment, Bara said the biggest enemy of liquidity right now remains uncertainty. It might account for why they recently started to add tariff contingencies in underwriting.

How does Chartres continue to thrive? Bara says it’s living by the concept of constant improvement.