Make no doubt about it , New York Citybased owner-operator Highgate is in the select-service business . In fact , of its 533-hotel portfolio , 406 are select-service . Now they have made it official , having launched Highgate Select in early March , a division focused on differentiated management and development of select-service , limited-service and extended-stay hotels .
“ We are very bullish on this sector of the hospitality business ,” Highgate Select Chief Operating Officer Rob Dann says . “ We have a great platform that we ’ ve built . We ’ re looking for acquisitions , and we think we can do a great job with third-party management , as well .”
Highgate ’ s prominence as a private owner-operator in the select-service space has developed predominantly due to two acquisitions with partner Cerberus Capital Management . In March 2021 , Highgate and Cerberus finalized its acquisition from Colony Capital of six portfolios consisting of 197 hotels with 22,676 rooms , in a deal valued at US $ 2.8 billion . This week , final approval was given to Highgate and Cerberus ’ US $ 1.5 billion deal to acquire CorePoint Lodging , which includes a portfolio of 123 La Quinta-branded hotels . Previously , in 2011 , Highgate acquired limitedservice operator InnVentures to get its true start in the space .
“ When we bought Colony , we built the platform to support that flex-service , extendedstate portfolio ,” Dann says . “ Now we ’ re officially coming out from behind with this division that we ’ ve put together with this CorePoint acquisition .”
To oversee the Select portfolio across 33 U . S . states , Dann is supported by a multidisciplinary executive team with an average of 30 years of hospitality experience . Within the division , emphasis is placed on empowering GMs to take ownership of their hotels by extending lines of communication , including transparency and exposure to executive leadership .
Dann says Highgate ’ s approach to selectservice management somewhat flips the traditional model , decentralizing a lot of the operations . “ What we found when we bought the first portfolio is that the select-service world is more of a centralized model . With us , we
The La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham Owasso in Oklahoma