Over the years the combined companies owned and operated more than 120 assets, Patel said. The compa

The hold period for the 25 La Quinta properties downtown los angeles virtual office acquired by NewcrestImage will be short as the company plans to sell the portfolio in smaller chunks to individual owners, said Mehul Patel, NewcrestImage s managing director.
I don t think there s a better time to do this kind of deal than we ve seen in the past 24 months, said Mehul Patel, NewcrestImage s managing director who also serves downtown los angeles virtual office as chairman of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association. downtown los angeles virtual office It s a pretty unique situation if you can acquire and rebrand. I definitely see a lot of transactions happening soon.
For La Quinta, the deal serves as a springboard to spur the previously announced divesture of 47 non-core downtown los angeles virtual office assets. None of the 47 hotels including the 25 acquired by NewcrestImage will retain the La Quinta brand once they are sold.
During an interview held earlier this week in conjunction with the 35th Annual New York University International downtown los angeles virtual office Hospitality Industry Investment Conference, La Quinta CEO Wayne Goldberg said the company is ready to quickly move the assets off the books. La Quinta has now sold 26 of the assets and has contracts in place for all but eight of the remaining properties. The company will use proceeds from the all-cash deal with NewcrestImage to pay down debt, as dictated by financial covenants.
Goldberg and Rajiv Trivedi, executive VP, franchise and chief development officer, downtown los angeles virtual office said the company will ultimately sell all of the properties at a discount because the La Quinta brand will not be continued on them.
NewcrestImage plans to convert the properties, which comprise 2,978 rooms, to brands such as Quality Inn, Days Inn, Super 8 and Motel 6, according to Patel. The hotels are located Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
Patel said the companies started working with La Quinta and parent company Blackstone Group during the fourth quarter of 2012. Finally, in the last 30 days we were able to negotiate downtown los angeles virtual office the final details, he said.
NewcrestImage was formed earlier this year when Newcrest Management and Image Hospitality merged. The partnership includes Newcrest Development, a real estate development downtown los angeles virtual office company; Brightman Construction, a builder focusing on hotel construction and renovation; and Image Hospitality, a hotel management company.
Over the years the combined companies owned and operated more than 120 assets, Patel said. The company is developing eight hotels, including downtown los angeles virtual office upper-midscale and extended-stay properties downtown los angeles virtual office in Texas and Oklahoma.
The La Quinta executives said they plan to continue to focus their growth plans on expanding its franchising base. Once the remaining 21 non-core assets are sold, it will own and operate 350 hotels while franchising 464 more.
We don t focus on numbers, Goldberg said. We will get to 1,000 but that s not what we focus on because when you only focus on a number, you make bad decisions. We focus on the fundamentals. We see several good years ahead of us.
We expect to open 50 new hotels this year, he said. The great news for our development platform is that from 2009 to 2013 we have opened 65% new construction and that was during the toughest economic times the industry has seen.
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