Chatham Lodging Trust has opened the 170-suite Home2 Suites by Hilton Woodland Hills Los Angeles as part of the Warner Center. This is the third extended-stay hotel to join the Chatham portfolio in the last six months. The company's investments during that time frame have reached approximately $140 million.
The hotel will be managed by Island Hospitality Management, which is owned by Chatham CEO and President Jeffrey Fisher. "We expect this hotel will generate one of the highest [revenues per available room] 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," Fisher said in a statement.
Public spaces at the hotel include an indoor/outdoor bar and restaurant as well as a gym.
Within Woodland Hills, Warner Center is located within the San Fernando Valley submarket of Los Angeles. Warner Center currently generates significant standalone demand with 10 million square feet of office space with approximately 50,000 employees, almost 8 million square feet of retail space and is home to more than 20,000 local residents. The city of Los Angeles introduced the Warner Center 2035 Plan, a development blueprint that emphasizes mixed-use and transit-oriented development, walkability and sustainability with a goal of further urbanizing the zoning district. The Warner Center 2035 Plan is behind the creation of a multipurpose regional center that would encompass approximately 1,100 acres and allows for a net increase of 12.5 million square feet of office, 2.3 million square feet of retail and 23.5 million square feet of new residential apartments (across 20,000 units).
“The Warner Center market is poised to boom over the next decade, and components of the Warner Center 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,” Chatham COO Dennis Craven 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 stabilized [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization] 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.”