Concord Hospitality Breaks Ground on 17th Hotel in 2008

Company On Target to Double Portfolio to 100 Hotels Within Three Years

RALEIGH-DURHAM, N.C.—Concord Hospitality Enterprises, one of the nation’s top-ranked hotel developer/owner/operators, has broken ground on its 17th property of 2008, bringing to 15 the number of hotels the company currently has under construction.

The newest property is the 124-room Courtyard in Pittsburgh, PA, scheduled to open in fall 2009.

All of the hotels are premium brands affiliated with the world’s leading franchisors and are slated to open between now and year-end 2009.

Two of the properties, the SpringHill Suites by Marriott-Waukegan, Ill., (middle left photo) and the Fairfield Inn and Suites by Marriott Pittsburgh, Pa. (middle right photo), opened in August.

The remaining 15 under-construction hotels, aggregating more than 2,000 rooms and valued at nearly $350 million, put the company on pace to double the size of its portfolio to more than 100 owned and managed within the next three years.

“We did our first 50 hotels in 20 years; we hope to do our next 50 in three,” said Mark Laport, (top right photo) Concord Hospitality president and CEO.

“Our accelerated growth will be through a combination of new development, acquisitions/repositionings and third-party management contracts.

"Our development pipeline is the strongest it’s ever been, with 15 being the largest number of properties we’ve had under construction at one time. Even with a slowing economy and a troubled credit market, we have the ability to move projects forward.

"We have available equity to invest in new properties, in addition to the capital to develop, acquire and reposition/renovate hotels, and we have long-standing relationships with lenders who know us and know our capabilities.”

Laport noted that the 15 under-construction hotels will produce a portfolio with a wider geographical reach.

“In 2008, we have added or broken ground on properties in New York, Illinois, Maryland, Alabama and Texas and will break ground in North Carolina by the end of the year.

"We are gradually increasing our geographic diversification, developing in high-growth regions, like the southwest, in order to spread our business risk across a wider area and lessen our exposure to any one regional economy.

"As always, we are focusing on markets with solid demographics and high barriers to new supply. We continue to aggressively seek additional sites for hotel development, both domestically and overseas,” he said.

“With the continued globalization of the hotel industry, we see significant international growth opportunities, especially as U.S.-based brands like Marriott, Hilton, Starwood and Intercontinental Hotel Group seek to expand their presence there.”

The 15 hotels currently under construction in the Concord pipeline are:

Laport added that new development is just one leg of a multi-pronged growth strategy. With the recently announced signing of contracts with national real estate developer Jackson-Shaw, to manage two hotels in an under-construction, multi-use development in Dallas, Concord’s portfolio of hotels reached another important milestone.

Third-party management contracts now account for half of the company’s total portfolio of more than 50 hotels, compared to an 80/20 mix just a few years ago.

(Renaissance Raleigh hotel site, Raleigh, NC, bottom right map)

“Our existing owners have always been an important source of new management contract opportunities for us,” Laport said.

“Now we have taken a more proactive approach, looking for owners who have or wish to build quality assets and need high-level technical and pre-opening services to help in the development, opening and operating of hotels.”

Contacts: Melanie Boyer, Jerry Daly (703) 435-6293.