US: Chatham Lodging Trust has opened Home2 Suites by Hilton Woodland Hills, Los Angeles.
The property is the third new extended-stay hotel in the Chatham portfolio to open within the past six months, with its investment aggregating approximately $140 million. It is located in the Warner Centre, within Woodland Hills and the San Fernando submarket of Los Angeles and will be managed by Island Hospitality Management.
The Warner Centre accounts for 10 million square feet of office space with about 50,000 employees, with eight million square feet of retail space and home to 20,000 local residents.
The Warner Centre was introduced by the city of Los Angeles in the Warner Centre 2035 plan, a development plan to highlight mixed-use and transit-oriented development, walkability and sustainability, and to promote further urbanisation. The plan also promotes the scheme of a Regional Centre, where residents can live, work and play, and accounts for 1,100 acres and a net increase of 12.5 million square feet of office space, 2.3 million square feet of retail and 23.5 million square feet of new residential apartments (about 20,000 units).
“This beautiful asset is an ideal addition to our industry leading portfolio of premium-branded, extended stay hotels. Built to the highest construction measures and designed to LEED Silver standards reflecting our commitment to sustainability, this hotel provides the best all-around lodging experience in the market with an awesome public space that includes a full-service, indoor/outdoor bar and restaurant, state-of-the-art gym and the largest rooms in the market equipped with kitchens,” said Jeffrey H. Fisher, Chatham’s chief executive officer and president. “We expect this hotel will generate one of the highest RevPARs in our portfolio and believe that it is positioned to ramp up more quickly than is customary in the industry as it is the only premium-branded, extended-stay room product within 11 miles of the hotel. The Home2 Suites by Hilton Woodland Hills will appeal to any traveller coming to the area for business, leisure or both.”
Dennis Craven, Chatham’s chief operating officer, added: “The Warner Centre market is poised to boom over the next decade, and components of the Warner Centre 2035 Plan are already underway, including the massive Westfield Mall redevelopment, a lot of newly constructed retail space and the opening of several new residential communities,” said “The opening of this hotel concludes the successful recycling of the proceeds from the sale of an older hotel in San Diego for $67 million into this trophy asset with an investment of $70 million. We expect the reinvestment will contribute incremental stabilised EBITDA of over $1 million compared to the sold hotel. In 2022, we will continue to recycle capital out of older assets into newer hotels with higher growth prospects. We have emerged from the pandemic with a stronger balance sheet and have the capacity to make value-enhancing acquisitions and generate incremental cash flow.”
