Lodging Stocks Whipsawed After Bank Seizures

In a day that was everything that was expected, the financial indexes and individual stocks were whipsawed. The DJIA ended the day down 91 points but Nasdaq was up 50, the S&P 500 was down 6 points and the flight to safety continued, along with the cries that all this turmoil would stop the Fed from raising rates anymore, resulting in the 10-year treasury yield falling another .18 to 3.52%. Lodging stocks were lower. AHT fell -8%, MCG and SLNA were both down -7% with SLNA trading down to another all-time low. SOND also hit an all-time low, down to below $0.77 but then bounced, ending the day up 5%. HT and TNL were down -5% on the day.

B.Riley lowered their price target on Ashford Hospitality Trust to $6.50 from $9. They maintained their Neutral rating.

Truist upped their target price on Bluegreen Vacation Holdings to $51 from $45, updating estimates after BVH reported a higher than expected 4Q result.

We typically don’t discuss insider trading, mainly because for the most part, lodging companies have modest insider activity. That being said Jon Bortz, chairman of Pebblebrook Hotel Trust has been on a bit of an insider buying spree the past few weeks. He has purchased a total of 64,000 shares between 2/28 and 3/9 at prices ranging from $14.30 to $14.67. That is something to pay attention to. We always say insiders have numerous reasons to sell but usually there is only one reason to buy.

The Montford Group and Opterra Capital, doing business as TMGOC Ventures, announced the 131-room hotel Moxy Charleston Downtown is set to open by the end of March. Amenities at the Charleston, South Carolina hotel include four meeting and event spaces, a business center, fitness center, a DJ/podcast booth, a ground-floor Starbucks and onsite parking.

Crawford Hoying, along with Woodard Development, announced the opening of the new AC Hotel in Dayton, Ohio. The property features 134 rooms, 4,500 square feet of meeting rooms, a library, a restaurant, lounge and a fitness center.

PCH Hotels & Resorts has officially expanded its services to include third-party hotel management services for additional ownership groups. PCH provides the following management services: hotel operations, food & beverage management, revenue management, spa operations, capital budget management, accounting services, human resources and IT services. PCH also operates two dozen-plus F&B outlets, as well as six European spas.

Playa Hotels & Resorts N.V. announced the management of a new Wyndham Alltra resort in the Dominican Republic. This will be the fourth Wyndham Alltra resort managed by Playa Hotels & Resorts. The agreement provides Playa management with a 404-room resort in Samana, Dominican Republic, which will be renovated and rebranded as Wyndham Alltra Samana. The opening date of the rebranded resort is set for the third quarter of 2023. Renovations will focus on main common areas, food and beverage outlets and guestrooms.

Dollywood celebrated its opening weekend, in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, for the theme park’s thirty-eighth season this past weekend. Dollywood will unveil two major projects in 2023. The HeartSong Lodge & Resort will open with more than 300 rooms in November, and bookings for the resort will begin in June. The Big Bear Mountain roller coaster is expected to open in May.

Developers working for over a year on a new McKinney, Texas hotel hope to break ground on the project in the coming months. The Denizen Hotel is planned in the Huge Craig Ranch Development. Archstreet Hotel Partners will build the more than 100-room hotel as part of the mixed-use District 121 project. The development also includes a new office building plus restaurant and retail space. The four-story hotel building is expected to cost about $20 million.

On Monday, the city of New Orleans, Louisiana selected the Bayou Phoenix proposal to redevelop the abandoned Six Flags site in New Orleans East. The proposal consists of a hotel, sports complex, amusement park, water park, and mega travel center.

Newmark Group has acquired real estate advisory firm Gerald Eve, augmenting its international expansion, following the recent purchases of investment sales and leasing advisory firms BH2 and Harper Dennis Hobbs and Deskeo. In financial year 2022, Gerald Eve generated net revenues of £92.7 million. Simon Prichard will continue in his role as senior partner of the business alongside managing partner Simon Rees. 

Personnel Move

Great Wolf Resorts named Mark Lewis as Senior Vice President of Field Operations. In this role, Lewis will be responsible for delivering operational excellence and strengthening the overall guest experience in the 18 U.S.-based Great Wolf Lodge resorts. Reporting to Lewis will be three Regional Vice Presidents, a Vice President of Process Improvement and a Corporate Director of Engineering. Prior to Great Wolf Resorts, Lewis spent the past 12 years at Evolution Hospitality as its Senior Vice President of Operations. 

Europe Highlights

In the U.K., the Gloucester City Council signed a deal which will see a luxury hotel built in the city. IHG Hotels & Resorts will build a 131-bedroom Hotel Indigo at The Forum development in the heart of the city center. The deal sees the city welcome its first international upscale brand as an anchor occupier in the £107m project, which is being developed by the council in partnership with Reef Group. Hotel Indigo Gloucester will offer a restaurant, conference facilities, rooftop cocktail bar, a gym, car park, and access to The Forum’s digital innovation hub. There will be another restaurant on the ground floor. The new hotel will sit alongside 135,000 square feet of Grade A office space currently under construction and will be due for completion in Summer 2024.

Ennismore launched the first Mondrian hotel in France with Mondrian Cannes. The property sits on the site of the first luxury hotel in Cannes opened in 1862. Mondrian Cannes features a restaurant and a bar and is located adjacent to Hyde Beach Cannes.

Union Investment purchased the Westfalen Center in Dortmund, Germany from AFIAA Investment Foundation for International Real Estate Investments. The campus property comprises an office building that incorporates a hotel. The acquisition is being made on behalf of the urban Campus Nr. 1 special fund established jointly by Union Investment and Investa Capital Management. The Westfalen Center Dortmund is the eighth property in the fund. The property currently has 33 tenants, with the main tenant Steigenberger Hotel occupying 22% of the total rental space. Investa Real Estate will handle property and tenant management of the new acquisition. AFIAA was advised on legal aspects by Latham and Watkins. Union Investment and Investa Real Estate were advised on legal aspects by P+P Pollath + Partners.

Cheyne Capital provided a 62 million senior loan to Samla Capital to finance the redevelopment of The Hotel Maria in Finland. Located in Helsinki the hotel comprises four buildings. Following the refurbishment, The Hotel Maria, which is expected to open in December 2023, will have 117 rooms, two restaurants, two bars, a ballroom and a spa. The project is Cheyne’s second real estate transaction in Finland. 

Germany’s Achat Hotel Group will take the total number of properties in its portfolio to 50 this year after agreeing to deal to add the Michel Hotel Group, with its 13 leased properties, to its network. The new hotels, plus planned openings this year will take the group over the milestone. Michel Hotel Group will remain as the owner and lessor of its 13 hotel properties.

BWH Group’s WorldHotels Collection announced the expansion of its hotel offerings in key travel destinations across Europe and Asia with five new properties. The latest additions to the portfolio include; The Sofraga Palacio, Spain, Crafted collection with 27 bedrooms and suites; the 25-suite Luxury Suites Amsterdam, Netherlands, the first WorldHotels Elite collection hotel in the city; Makedonia Palace, Greece, Luxury collection; the 202-room b’mine Dusseldorf, Germany, Luxury collection; and the 160-room Villa Fontaine Premier Haneda Airport, Tokyo, Elite collection.