compelling price because of their need for renovation … We ’ re also more amenable to getting creative on how we put together a business plan . While we ’ re institutional in our underwriting quality , we tend to be a little bit more entrepreneurial in how we view our business plan .”
Urban points to its Manhattan project , which is undergoing a major physical transformation to 4-starplus status . “ We believe in the marketplace and our execution ability there ,” he says . “ So , we were also able to change the capital structure there a little bit by extending the term of the ground lease . Little things like that all add up to some tremendous value add .” Forward looking From a product perspective , Urban says AKA will become even more friendly to businesspeople trying to work remotely . “ Your technology has to be not just good , but it must be great . And you need to be forward thinking in terms of your broadband capabilities . So , we ’ re going to be way ahead of the curve on that .”
AKA is also going to make sure that the spaces in the building allow guests to be comfortable for several days with breakfast and evening cocktail hour made a part of the amenity plan . Restaurants will continue to be leased out as leadership also sees great , adjacent food and beverage as very important .
The brand will be flexible with meeting space and focus on more social business and small corporate meetings . It will also maintain its signature small movie theaters to cater to the entertainment business that like to do their editing on site at night .
Oversized , high-end fitness facilities will also remain key to the AKA offering , according to Urban .
The overall investment and direction for the fund and AKA are all crucially forward looking and Urban says it ’ s imperative because a very different demographic with different needs and patterns is going to be traveling the most over the next 10 years . “ We , as an industry , need to be receptive to what that ’ s going to look like , and I don ’ t think we ’ ve been terribly forward thinking all the time … We need to be more progressive because the world is changing faster than it ever has before .”
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