NASHVILLE, Tenn. — There's a lot of money chasing hotel assets right now, fueled by countless funds formed in late 2020 and 2021 to seek distressed pricing that largely didn't materialize.
That's made it harder for many more traditional hotel investors to close deals amid the noise, but Patrick Short, president of Peachtree Hospitality Management, said Peachtree Hotel Group has been able to keep its deal flow going by being involved "up and down the capital stack."
"We are a lender, a builder, an operator," he said while speaking to Hotel News Now during the 2021 Hotel Data Conference. "And so, some of the deals that we've done have come from more of the debt financing side with our partners over at Stonehill."
Beyond that, being an established player in the industry and knowing who to go to has helped the company continue to get deals done.
"Our acquisitions we've had have really been through relationships we've had, through knowing the market, being in the space," he said. "A lot of the capital that's coming in is not in the hospitality space, so that gives us an advantage. And we've been very aggressive in looking for opportunities across all markets."
That approach is yielding results.
In early August, Peachtree announced the company had "acquired more than $1 billion in stressed and distressed real estate assets since June 2020." The company currently owns or operates roughly 55 hotels.
Short said the debt side of the business has been Peachtree's "primary growth model" during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lending "has been tight. Banks have been scared, so they've tightened some of their reins coming out of COVID," he said. "We understand the hospitality space, so when we go to lend, you're lending with somebody that understands the business and understands the ups and downs of the business. That's been a great opportunity for us."
For more from HNN's conversation with Patrick Short, watch the video above.