ANAHEIM, CA-Hotel and commercial real estate general contractor Parkwest General Contractor has hired Craig Sullivan as SVP-business development. Sullivan will be based in the firm's corporate headquarters here and will be responsible for spearheading the company's growth strategy. He has teamed up with Chris Hostert, Parkwest's president, and Ed LaCivita, EVP.
Sullivan joins the firm in transitioning from his role as VP of Twenty Four Seven Hotels and prior as VP of the National Hospitality Group, which he pioneered at North American Title Co., a subsidiary of Lennar Corp. with a long history on the West Coast. He has closed more than $19 billion in hospitality transactions for the past 17 years nationally and internationally.
Regarding the move, Sullivan tells GlobeSt.com, “Instead of working for a hotel-management company, I'm working for a general contractor. I get to retain all of my old clients, and I can use the same skill set here as I did for real estate services at a title-insurance company. It's also a great opportunity to increase Parkwest's footprint in the hotel industry.”
Sullivan adds that Parkwest specializes in property-improvement plans, remodels, refreshing and adaptive reuse such as converting a 1926 office building into a hotel, so “now's a good time for this move because the brands are requiring franchisees to step up. They've been allowing them to defer maintenance for the last three-and-a-half to four years because of the financial meltdown. It's time to refresh these hotels since some of the brand standards have changed as well.” In addition, many hotels are repositioning, with several changing flags. “There will be a lot going on in the hotel industry for the next several years, barring any other unforeseen incidents.”
According to LaCivita, over the past five years Parkwest has developed the infrastructure and management team to serve a larger pipeline of new business in California and the Western US. “Craig brings over 40 years of hand-on experience in the commercial real estate industry, with 17 years exclusively devoted to the lodging sector, to this new position. He is very well known and respected in the hotel industry, along with a tireless enthusiasm to his role, and is a perfect fit for our company.”
As GlobeSt.com reported in March, Bill Stadler, senior managing director for HFF, told us that RevPAR growth is accelerating in top markets, but almost every West Coast lodging market is exceeding the national average of 6.8%, most notably San Francisco at 12.8% and L.A./Long Beach at 11%. “Downtown L.A. is also seeing significant growth just as a submarket. L.A. Live, what's going on Downtown and the shortage of hotel rooms there are really driving that market. It's reflective of the West Coast's strong demand.”
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Carrie Rossenfeld
Carrie Rossenfeld is a reporter for the San Diego and Orange County markets on GlobeSt.com and a contributor to Real Estate Forum. She was a trade-magazine and newsletter editor in New York City before moving to Southern California to become a freelance writer and editor for magazines, books and websites. Rossenfeld has written extensively on topics including commercial real estate, running a medical practice, intellectual-property licensing and giftware. She has edited books about profiting from real estate and has ghostwritten a book about starting a home-based business.
