Hotel Market Appears Sturdy Heading Into 2001

PORTLAND-The Portland hotel market is recovering nicely, if a bit slowly, from a large influx of rooms in the late 1990s, and there are reasons to be optimistic headed into the 2001, according to Ed Dundon of Ed Dundon& Co. a commercial real estate brokerage specializing in the hotel industry.

“The fall months have been pretty good for hotels,” Dundon tells GlobeSt. “I don’t have all the hard data to support it yet, but from my conversations with hotel operators around the city, markets that were softening – the airport, the suburban Westside and downtown – have leveled off or have turned the corner and are improving.”

Also, says Dundon, Portland is perceived by developers around the country as being very healthy for investment, but one in which you would develop new hotels with caution in order to have the timing to hit the market right as it is turning up. “We’re not in a boom, but we’re not in an unhealthy or declining market, and its pretty steady with prospects for improvement,” says Dundon. “So I think it’s a good time to sell hotels because there are buyers out there that recognize that there is upside in the market.”