NEW YORK— What would it take for a comparatively unassuming, mid-market hotel company to make its mark on The Big Apple? To hear La Quinta Corp. EVP/Chief Development Officer Alan Tallis tell it: “Somewhere between 10 and 15 properties in New York City— and its environs— sounds just about right [for us].” Providing the Irving, TX-based organization with a major push in this direction is the recently opened 182-room La Quinta Inn – Manhattan, owned and operated by Apple Core Hotels and representing the only La Quinta property currently up-and-running in the city proper. Operating as a Best Western until its conversion at the tail end of 2002, this midtown Manhattan property is expected to be the sole standard-bearer for La Quinta in New York City “for at least the next couple of years,” Tallis said. “And even then,” he added, “we’ll move ahead with other Manhattan locations only if and when the right opportunity presents itself.” As such, odds are that “right opportunity” will find Apple Core Hotels taking part in it as well, According to Tallis: “We are committed to expanding our presence here… and our clear preference is to do so shoulder-to-shoulder with Apple Core Hotels.” Mapping out the basis of this preference, Tallis maintained: “Our experience with Apple Core has shown [that organization to be]top-drawer; they’ve proven themselves to be exceptionally quality-conscious operators… and that’s very important to us because we have a considerable amount of ‘skin in the game,’ given the fact nearly 80% of our 350-location portfolio consists of corporate-owned sites, reflecting a real-estate asset value of some $1.5 billion.” In line with this stance, it bears noting La Quinta recently disenfranchised an existing facility that had been strategically positioned outside Manhattan, near John F. Kennedy Airport, for “failure to uphold/maintain La Quinta standards.” However, in what should amount to something of a wash regarding La Quinta-branded airport-convenient sites, this former location will ostensibly be replaced by a new La Quinta Inn & Suites going up in Islip, close to Long Island’s MacArthur Airport. Like the Manhattan property, this facility— slated to offer roughly 100 units— will also be owned and operated by Apple Core Hotels, and is set to break ground this fall in order to meet a scheduled mid- to late-2004 opening date.
Alan Tallis