SAN DIEGO-Georgetown Hospitality Partners is ready for business. The platform, a remedy for certain hospitality financing, was announced at the first day of the American Lodging Investment Summit, here. Founded by Mike Lipson and Jon Wright, in conjunction with Georgetown Capital Partners, the venture will take advantage of a tight financing market, aimed specifically at hotels.

GHP will provide acquisition, construction and rehabilitation loans to the hospitality sector, however, with moderate acquisition and little construction in the pipeline, the rehabilitation loans are the a central aspect of their platform. “Coming out of the blocks, the rehabilitation loans will be key,” Wright tells GlobeSt.com. Much of the aim will be to use relationships with major franchise brands and “identify strategic needs and assets in their systems to focus on with initial funding strategies.”

For example, a national brand may be doing well, but has a few key properties that are struggling at maintaining brand standards. GHP will provide short term gap financing “to preserve their franchise agreements while the senior debt is scarce.” GHP acts as a line of credit secured by a lien on the upgrades provided. Wright explains that the strategy was developed during the Savings & Loan days when a major brand didn’t have capital for rehabilitation of some of its assets.

Wright explains that the rehabilitation financing works counter-cyclically of construction loans, which are more sought after in boom years. The operations team will be in Atlanta, while the other offices will be in Washington, DC.