Quotes of the week: José Andrés Group, Leonardo Hotels, HEI Hotels & Resorts

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“They’re garnering top [room] rates, driving traffic to the property and making money out of the restaurants,” he said. “With that formula, we think that our brand does have the power and reach to be able to benefit from a rooms perspective, as well.” – Sam Bakhshandehpour, José Andrés Group   Read story

“North American development would be my dream and I’ve been working on a few deals, but they are far from being close. I’m hoping that in the coming 12 months we will have good news.” – Ronen Nissenbaum, Leonardo Hotels   Read story

“I’d say the sub-$20 million check size, that’s where we’re seeing the most activity from lenders across the board, but specifically, your bank/credit union lenders,” he said. “It’s risk more than anything; lenders that historically might have done a $100 million check say they would rather spread that risk across three $30 million deals today.” – Ryan Bosch, Arriba Capital   Read story

“We’ve seen a lot of complexing in food and beverage where you’re moving the club lounges down to the ground floors, and you’re complexing the feeding—kind of the buffet—for that club lounge clientele, along with the restaurants.” – Justin Reid, Host Hotels & Resorts   Read story

“The problem is that you still have the gap between the buyers and sellers. Pricing expectations are definitely coming closer,” Petri said. “We’re working on deals that we’ve underwritten three or four times with each time coming closer to something where there can be a trade.” – Steen Petri, HEI Hotels & Resorts   Read story

“We will find our competitive advantage and play there. We will figure out who we are and stay disciplined.” – Craig Smith, Aimbridge Hospitality   Read story

“Maybe it does work, and there’s a certain aspect of visionary investment that would make that deal compelling to the equity,” he said. “But lenders are risk averse by nature, and so when dealing with those pioneering fact patterns, it’s much more difficult to buy into it.” – Michael Straw, CBRE   Read story

“The new construction pipeline in Europe is very mature with 45% of projects under construction. Going forward, more conversions will grow rapidly as broader hospitality investment grows in the region.” – Bruce Ford, Lodging Econometrics   Read story

“Expense pressures will become a substantial factor in identifying winning and losing markets, especially with several major cities embarking on new union negotiations in the coming years.” – Ryan Meliker, LARC   Read story