Beverly’s Capital Hotel Management (CHM), a hotel investment, advisory and asset management firm, has formed a new division of the company called CHM Partners LLC.
The division will acquire hotels primarily as a co-investor with other equity partners, the company said.
Hotel real estate veteran Roger Clark has joined the partnership as a managing partner. He will be responsible for sourcing and negotiating acquisitions. The firm has assembled capital and plans to acquire both full-service and select-service hotels in urban and resort markets, according to a statement.
"When CHM was founded in 2000, investment was a major part of our strategy and execution and we successfully sold those owned assets near the top of the last cycle," said Ken Wilson, CEO of CHM. "We believe the timing is right to return to our original strategic platform and to again invest in hotels to take advantage of the coming next cycle.
"In our conversations with our investment partners, many remain leery of jumping back into the hotel acquisition ring because of the difficulties of the past two years," Wilson said. "While the industry appears to have bottomed out, there are still strong headwinds ahead that will require the creative, strategic thinking CHM brings to the acquisition and ownership process. We intend to back the confidence in our abilities with meaningful investment. Roger will lead our program in putting transactions together."
Clark has been involved in hotel real estate for more than 20 years. Most recently, he was senior vice president of acquisitions and development for Connecticut’s HEI Hospitality, where he was responsible for the acquisition of more than $1 billion in hotel transactions. Prior to that, he was senior vice president, chief development officer for New Castle Hotels and was responsible for $250 million in acquisitions and more than $120 million of new construction projects.
"As we looked back over the past decade since our founding and toward our future, we concluded that the opportunity to invest in hotels is better now than at any time in this century, perhaps this generation," said Chad Crandell, president of CHM. "We believe there will be an extraordinary window of opportunity to make acquisitions."
CHM will seek both individual hotels and portfolios, including urban hotels and resorts, as well as premium-branded, select-service properties. "Our target markets are primary U.S. cities, as opposed to secondary or tertiary markets," Clark said. "Our sweet spot is in the full-service sector with hotels of 200 or more rooms, preferably a complex and/or mixed-used asset that has substantial meeting space, F&B and amenities. We especially welcome turn-around opportunities, which can benefit from our expertise in renovation, repositioning and rebranding; we are not averse to assets with excess land. In the select-service sector, we are mostly interested in urban markets and premium portfolios."
