Hotel Investors Flocking to Chicago

CHICAGO—The commercial real estate sectors in Chicago may not have the vibrancy of gateway cities like New York or San Francisco, but local experts remain optimistic about the prospects for 2014. Yesterday, for example, at a breakfast meeting of Chicago Real Estate Professionals at the East Bank Club, an event hosted by Brown, Udell, Pomerantz and Delrahim, Ltd., Jeffrey J. Preston, vice president of HREC Investment Advisors, said “Chicago is a very dynamic and resilient hotel market” and he expects that the worst fears about overbuilding will prove groundless.

“Last year we opened about 1,500 rooms,” the Chicago-based Preston said, making 2013 one of Chicago’s busier years for production and usually taken as a sign of robust health. But he acknowledged that some in the business have gotten worried.