WASHINGTON, D.C. – February 27, 2018 – Berkadia’s Hotels & Hospitality group is off to a strong start in 2019, coming off its strongest year since inception in 2018. The team has kicked off 2019 with two significant portfolio listings: Glacier House’s portfolio of fifteen hotels across the West and Southwest that could fetch up to $375 million combined and a Hyatt House portfolio of two brand new extended stay hotels in the Southeast that together could fetch up to $120 million. On the mortgage banking side, the team has been engaged by Urban Commons to pitch approximately $125 million of floating rate debt to refinance existing debt and fund a portion of the conversion of The Wagner at the Battery in New York City to an internationally-recognized premium hotel brand.
“We’re not slowing down in 2019. We’ve got a solid pipeline and a strong client base that is reaping the benefit of our holistic approach, which integrates investment sales and mortgage banking expertise to provide clients the best solutions to reach their goals,” said Andy Coleman, Senior Managing Director. “We anticipate continued robust growth within our hospitality platform in the coming year.”
To accommodate this growth, Berkadia has added John Testerman as a Senior Director on its investment sales team. Testerman joins Berkadia from Generation Companies, a 24-property hospitality development and management company. As Director of Acquisitions and Development, he was responsible for managing hospitality acquisition, development, conversion, and disposition activity as well as overseeing and underwriting all investment opportunities.
“It’s an exciting time to be joining Berkadia’s Hotels team, coming off strong performance in 2018 and with several big portfolio listings underway,” said Testerman. “Favorable factors remain in the market—brands are strong, new hotels continue to be built, top markets continue to see strong activity and majority of markets are still seeing positive, if modest, gains in RevPAR growth. I’m eager to bring my experience on the development side to bear in order to help clients identify and capitalize on opportunities that will drive volume.”
Berkadia has also appointed team veteran Matt Dower as Director of Operations. In this role, Dower will be responsible for continuing to strengthen lender relationships and increasing the team’s ability to cultivate tailored lender solutions with optimized pricing and terms. As the hospitality landscape becomes more sophisticated, Berkadia’s Hotels team is focused on driving efficiency and value by more tightly targeting lenders strongly aligned with client needs and goals during the deal process. By elevating the foundation of the platform, Dower’s work will enable the team to achieve higher levels of production, outreach and, most importantly, client service.
“With John and Matt in place, we’re more nimble and responsive than we’ve ever been, which is a good thing considering that the debt markets remain strong for hotel assets,” said Coleman. “If investors can continue to borrow long-term money at a lower cost, they’ll continue to transact. And we’re geared up to partner with our clients do just that.”
Berkadia’s Hotels & Hospitality group combines best-in-industry innovation, knowledge and experience with the most comprehensive suite of products and services, backed by relentless customer service and support to empower clients to capitalize on the right opportunities at the greatest value. The group serves clients across the country, offering a full set of advisory, investment sales, underwriting and loan origination services and products including Life Company, Proprietary Bridge Lending and Capital Markets Advisory Services.