INVESTMENT
Don ’ t Expect RTC 2.0
IN THE UNITED STATES
THREE TRANSACTION EXPERTS WEIGH IN ON THE STATE OF DEAL ACTIVITY IN THE U . S .
by JEFF WEINSTEIN , EDITOR IN CHIEF
The transaction market in the United States is slowly starting to pick up with REITs like Sunstone Hotel Investors spending US $ 265 million ( more than US $ 2 million / key ) to acquire the Montage Healdsburg in California ’ s wine country . But what is not happening , at least not yet , is wholesale deals for distressed assets . As Sean Hennessey of Lodging Advisors and the NYU Tisch Center for Hospitality told HOTELS , “ This will not be RTC 2.0 .”
To survey the transaction landscape in the U . S ., HOTELS spoke to Hennessey for the national perspective and then Executive Vice Presidents Michele Mahl and KC Patel in JLL ’ s Hotels & Hospitality Group for a closer look at the struggling New York City market . Here is what they had to say in mid-May :
HOTELS : Offer your general outlook for transactions , and what will drive it ?
Sean Hennessey : It is clear to me the pace of hotel investment will pick up as investors sense that hotel market conditions have bottomed out and the transition to recovery has begun . Six months ago , it looked like the recovery might be long and uneven , but recent demand data suggests robust leisure demand for the summer season , with corporate travel swinging into gear in the fall . There have been a number of transactions showing value reductions during COVID , but relatively few . There will be some discounts relative to pre-COVID pricing , but this will not be RTC 2.0 .
26 hotelsmag . com May / June 2021