DENVER— Hospitality industry veterans Mark Tobin and Michael Cahill have joined forces to form a new lodging investment advisory firm called HREC Asset Management (HRECAM), headquartered here. Managing Principal/President of the new joint venture, Mark Tobin, formed HRECAM by melding the strengths of his former Stamford, CT-based asset management company, Hotel Investment Properties, with the strengths of Cahill’s current company, Hospitality Real Estate Partners, to create HRECAM. Cahill now serves as HRECAM’s principal. Match Needs The newly formed venture specializes in “development management services, asset advisory services and asset management services,” explained Tobin, adding the firm will tailor its services to match the needs of the ownership entity. “Different markets, different assets, different ownership needs, all will dictate how we will approach each client,” said Tobin. Services the new firm will offer include: development management for large-scale projects, resort renovation and redevelopment, and capital project implementation; high-profile asset advice on bankruptcies, forced and consensual conveyances, and litigation; asset management for single-asset and institutional portfolios, debt underwriting and asset dispositions; market intelligence, research and other support capabilities from HREC; investment banking, transaction counseling and other support capabilities from HREC Investment Advisors— a HREC business co-founded by Geoff Davis, 20-year hospitality veteran. Tobin is a 20-year veteran whose experience includes executive stints with Hotel Investment Partners and Stephen W. Brener & Associates. Cahill continues in his role as president of Hospitality Real Estate Counselors (HREC), an internationally recognized hotel and casino consulting practice also headquartered here. According to Tobin, after about a year-long “courtship” to determine if working together would be a good fit, both he and Cahill decided to launch HRECAM last month. “It’s like a marriage. We both wanted a good fit,” said Tobin, who noted that HRECAM will call upon the many contacts and strengths Tobin cultivated with Hotel Investment Partners and Cahill continues to cultivate with HREC. “Mike has very extensive contacts, and using our combined expertise in luxury assets and large-scale assets — that’s my main expertise— as a guide we were monitoring, looking for opportunities. We asked [ourselves]if there was a place for this [company]. And we decided there was. We believe opportunities are out there.” Plus, by joining forces, it afforded Tobin and Cahill cost-efficiencies and “broadened” their core competencies, said Tobin. As to why such a joint venture is timely now, he said that, “Lodging value has always resulted in a confluence of real estate and operating factors. That hasn’t changed. Regardless of investment cycles, there appears to be a continuum in that there is a need for many ownership entities to enhance the organizational infrastructure or core competencies, with third-party expertise, in order to maximize potential yields.” Tobin went on to explain that for many real estate investors, particularly institutional real estate investors, hotels are only a small part of their portfolios. Therefore, he said, it is hard for them to justify the expense of having “in-house” management expertise that focuses solely on improving the operating value of their hotel portfolios. “That’s why Mike and I have formed a venture— to try and fill that void,” said Tobin. Current Projects HRECAM‘s current assignments include engagements with the City and County of Denver for its 1,100-room convention headquarters hotel currently in pre-development—HRECAM is helping to obtain financing through tax-exempt bonds, among other things— and with the owners of the 400-key Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Spa and Casino in San Juan, Puerto Rico. HRECAM is helping this owner to select new management, offering litigation support as the
