As a more "commercial real estate guy," Damon Healey didn't plan to focus on the hotel industry when he started down his professional path.
Early in Healey's professional career, the founder and managing principal of hotel ownership firm Eternal Companies was part of a project to develop a hotel in Washington, D.C.
The hotel deal itself didn’t work out, “but that’s what piqued my interest in hospitality,” he said on the latest episode of the “Next Gen in Lodging” Podcast.
When Healey later worked for Brookfield Asset Management, the company was about to buy 100 WoodSpring Suites hotels in partnership with Starwood Capital. Healey had some experience in lending work, feasibility and site selection, but he was still otherwise new to hospitality.
“I knew about how to go into cities and get things entitled and build teams around that,” he said. “Whether it’s architectural, engineering, find the right people, find the right brokers, find the right [general contractors] and internal employees to build teams around, who do we have to have in order to develop at scale — that’s what Brookfield was interested in.”
The company wanted someone who could go across the U.S. and develop another 50 WoodSpring Suites, creating Healey's foray into hospitality. He worked for Brookwood Hotels, the hospitality platform created by Brookfield to buy the 100 WoodSpring Suites and sign more franchise agreements with Choice Hotels International.
This experience with extended-stay properties led Healey to start Eternal Companies in 2023. Through this he bought two hotels, one in Columbus, Georgia, and another in Macomb, Georgia, and converted both to Choice’s Suburban Studios brand.
One of the key takeaways that came from Healey's time at Brookwood was that secondary and tertiary markets can work for economy hotels, he said.
“It’s all about the operation. It’s all about the basis you purchase it at,” he said. “They could do just as well as some of the primary markets because obviously the primary markets are going to be more expensive to purchase or develop in. So, it’s been like, ‘Hey, let’s not be shy about going into some of these secondary markets to get started.’”
For younger hoteliers looking to do something similar, it’s important to stay in areas of competence, he said. Though Healey is a developer who’s comfortable with site selection, title roundup and construction, he's doing it all himself and recognizes that it’s a much higher risk opportunity. He’s also learning more of the operations and asset-management side of the business instead of relying only on his acquisitions and development experience.
“I really need to know the business, and so that is how you can risk-mitigate yourself before taking on more risk as a developer,” he said.
Healey's goal is to scale Eternal Companies, but before that, he had to start somewhere and learn the full end-to-end business. Part of that comes from being able to seek advice from trusted colleagues in the industry.
“I truly believe it’s a team sport, and I would really encourage especially African American colleagues to lean on each other,” he said. “Don’t be afraid to lean on each other and lean into each other because we really are better together than we are separately.”
For more of the Next Gen in Lodging interview with Damon Healey about his professional experiences and life lessons, listen to the podcast embedded above.