TRENDING
PLAYING TO THEIR strengths
Guest room at the Hutton , Nashville
FIRST HOSPITALITY PRESIDENT AND CEO DAVID DUNCAN TALKS ABOUT GROWTH WITH NEW PARTNER GEORGETOWN CO . AND HOW THEY HAVE BEEN MANAGING THROUGH THE PANDEMIC .
by KATHAKALI NANDI
When First Hospitality , the family-owned and family-run hospitality investment , development and management company , decided to partner with New York-based The Georgetown Co . in September 2021 , the hospitality sector had yet to even begin its rebound .
Nine months into the marriage , First Hospitality President and CEO David Duncan , who heads the new platform along with Georgetown Managing Director Michael Fishbin , tells HOTELS all is well and their natural strengths as developers are meshing quite nicely .
The partners announced the launch of a new platform targeting US $ 1 billion of investment in upscale and luxury properties and in January acquired the 250-key Hutton Hotel in Nashville , Tennessee . The 14-story hotel , which was an office building in the 1960s and was converted into a hotel in 2009 , includes a social club and entertainment venue for live performances along with a coffee shop and a restaurant . Both partners are working on the hotel jointly and every decision has been made in close association with each other , Duncan says . “ The Hutton plays really well to our strengths . It ’ s a hotel that needs some renovation of the physical product . We are going to undertake a pretty significant renovation of the rooms , banquet , catering and other spaces over the next year or two and bring it to life as Nashville ’ s original boutique hotel ,” Duncan adds .
Besides working with Georgetown , First Hospitality is also working on other projects concentrating on various markets of different sizes to acquire hotel assets on their own . It has also made strategic investments in technology around revenue management to continue to generate aboveaverage profit margins at all First Hospitality hotels .
In conversation with HOTELS , Duncan speaks about First Hospitality ’ s growth outlook , the
14 hotelsmag . com June 2022