PITTSBURGH—When Jack Piatt founded Millcraft Investments in 1957, the product of choice was steel—not surprising for a company based just outside the steel capital of the world.
But 43 years later, that business model would change when Millcraft sold its final shares in its steel business to German company SMS Siemag. The new focus for Millcraft? Real estate.
“As we were in the steel business, my father did various real estate endeavors,” said Jack’s son Marcus Piatt, who heads up the Millcraft Hospitality subsidiary of the company.
It started in the early ‘90s with Millcraft’s development of Southpointe, a nearly 600-acre piece of land that was owned by the state, located in Cecil Township near Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, south of Pittsburgh. Piatt said the mixed-use business park is home to about six Fortune 500 companies. It’s also home to Millcraft’s 175-room Hilton Garden Inn Pittsburgh/Southpointe.
Speaking to Hotel News Now during an interview at the company’s Hilton Garden Inn Pittsburgh Market Square, which is under construction and due to be completed in December, Piatt said the Millcraft team “loves the hotel business.”
And that love of the business has the hotel and restaurant owner and operator on a mission to develop. The company has one hotel open, with eight in the pipeline.
The company owns all of its hotels except the Microtel Inn & Suites Beaver, where it is a limited partner as a third-party manager.
Piatt said when it comes to developing a new hotel, executives look to Hilton Worldwide Holdings’ family of brands.
“We’ve really cultivated that relationship with Hilton—not to say we wouldn’t go outside of that brand. We typically go to that well first,” the president said.
“Hilton Garden Inn has been one of our better assets,” he added.
Pittsburgh pride
With most of their developments in and around Pittsburgh, Millcraft executives remain bullish about the market as a whole.
“We feel good about it from an occupancy and development standpoint,” said Paul Bazzano, VP of hotel operations. “The increase in inventory is OK; we’ve been waiting a long time for this. So we feel pretty confident about it.”
He said executives are not concerned about the new supply coming online, with confidence that it can be absorbed. As of June 2015, the Pittsburgh central business district had 15 hotels with 2,062 rooms under contract, according to data from STR, parent company of Hotel News Now.
When asked if there are other geographical regions the company would like to expand to, Piatt said a hotel in Cleveland could be in the works. He said it is too soon to provide details about the project, however.
F&B done right
Food and beverage is a big part of Millcraft’s operations, with F&B a part of every hotel development for the company. Executives opt to operate not only the hotels but also the F&B outlets.
Why?
“Because we do it right,” Bazzano said.
The 198-room Hilton Garden Inn Pittsburgh Market Square will include restaurant Revel + Roost, which executives said will be “above and beyond” the HGI standard.
“You’ll have breakfast, lunch and dinner. And nightlife,” Piatt said. “It’s a restaurant, bar and nightclub.”
The hotel will offer the signature breakfast HGI is known for, but the F&B outlets will be positioned on two levels with lunch available downstairs and fine dining upstairs.
“Revel is kind of like the party, and Roost denotes the second floor, which is more fine-dining-focused,” Piatt said.
When asked why executives decided to incorporate an F&B concept different from the standard HGI concept, Bazzano joked: “It’s because we’re stupid, and we like food and beverage.”
More seriously, he said, “We love food and beverage. We think it’s a great time. We would miss an opportunity of having a walk-up storefront situation with a restaurant only on the second floor.
“Experience shows if we have a walk-up situation we can do 12-hour steady fare, turn it into nightlife. … With how popular Market Square is, that’s what made us say, ‘Hey, we probably should amplify our food and beverage.’”
And what about roomservice?
“It’s an amenity for the guest,” Bazzano said. “We don’t penalize the guest because they’re having roomservice. You guys have been out and you get charged $4 more because you’re in your room; we don’t do that.”
Editor’s note: VisitPittsburgh paid for travel expenses, hotel accommodations, food and entertainment for two nights. Complete editorial control was at the discretion of the Hotel News Now editorial team; VisitPittsburgh had no influence on the coverage provided.