INVESTOR PROFILE |
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The 450-room Fairmont Olympic Hotel, Seattle was acquired by Trinity in December 2024. |
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convention center, which bodes well as conference demand and group business continue their march back. Hehir might have a Dickensian view of hotel industry performance, but his investment conviction is decidedly Twainish: Buy land, they’ re not making it anymore.“ Where can you find 10 acres of land on the Atlantic in South Florida with a 1,000-room hotel?” Hehir mused.“ It is the epitome of irreplaceable real estate. That stuff is not getting built anymore.”
On the other hand, Trinity’ s purchase of Fairmont Seattle got a boost from Jeff Bezos when Amazon directed its Seattle employees to be in the
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office five days a week starting January 1, 2025.“ It was a real‘ aha!’ moment for us,” Hehir said.
Equally fortuitous, expect The Standard, London to have even higher returns after Hyatt Hotels Corp. acquired Standard International around the same time Trinity bought the hotel.“ It suddenly changed the profile of corporate travelers wanting to book there because they could earn points,” Hehir said.
INVESTMENT ETHOS Trinity does not put money into new development; it exclusively buys and sells assets. In that way, it’ s not only interested in the purchase, but the disposal.
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All the work that Trinity puts into an asset it expects to recoup at exit; thinking about others is not the typical investor persona.“ Who is this going to appeal to down the line?” Hehir said. Not many real estate companies have the fortitude and constitution to do large repositioning projects like Trinity, but when completed, and the time to sell comes, the payoff can be enormous.“ There’ s a plethora of buyers out there that want welllocated, stabilized assets that are irreplaceable and in highbarrier markets,” Hehir said.
In 2022, via joint venture, Trinity acquired Four Seasons Dallas at Los Colinas, which it
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subsequently repositioned into The Ritz-Carlton Dallas, Las Colinas. Almost three years later, it still owns the property, but Hehir can see the horizon.“ Maybe it goes to a REIT that has a need for Dallas exposure,” he pondered. Or, consider the 2021 purchase of East Miami, again through JV.“ That could be an ultra-high-net-worth family office that buys it,” he said.“ We spend a lot of time thinking through [ these scenarios ].”
Hehir doesn’ t reveal his hand, but if Trinity’ s asset strategy is any indication, East Miami may be up for sale soon. He is very clear about Trinity’ s steps for buying and selling hotels;
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24 hotelsmag. com May / June 2025 |