GRAPEVINE, TX— Smaller hotel owners will now be able to take full advantage of The Plasencia Group’s (TPG’s) considerable asset-marketing and disposition acumen as the Tampa, FL-based brokerage organization officially launched Sun Hospitality, a multi-regional affiliate targeting lodging property transactions valued at $10 million and under. Unveiled at Prism Hotels’ fifth annual Fishing For Solutions hotel default-servicing conference here, the new TPG arm kicks off its professional activities with the first of its five scheduled regional operations— Sunbelt Hospitality— currently active and processing some $120 million worth of business, with another $30 million or so virtually waiting in the wings at this time. Specifically, Sunbelt Hospitality— led by Houston-based TPG Managing Director Robert Wiemer and including Paul Williams in Dallas and Norris Lawrence in Austin— presently lists 27 assets for sale. Additionally, another eight properties are expected to be added to that number next week, with yet another 10 set to join the to-be-marketed mix almost concurrently. “All Sun Hospitality regional operations will provide a full-service approach to regional and national clients,” said TPG President/CEO Lou Plasencia. In a sense, some might be inclined to think of the newly launched affiliate as TPG Lite, though Plasencia made it a point to emphasize all Sun Hospitality undertakings subscribe to TPG’s trademark highly targeted approach to hotel marketing, an approach necessarily including such procedures as pre-qualification of potential buyers. Next up for Sun Hospitality will be Sun Pacific, slated to open its doors in some 30 days and— as the name implies— charged with handling smaller-scale hotel deals along the West Coast of the country. In Plasencia’s estimation, when all five regions are fully staffed— with between 12 to 15 associates, backed by full support teams— and ramped up, it is anticipated Sun Hospitality should be closing some 80 to 100 hotel transactions a year. —Michael Billig
