PHOENIX—Mark Laport has achieved a lot in the 30-year history of Concord Hospitality Enterprises Company, but one accomplishment stands out above the rest.
“We never threw money—jingle mail, keys—back to the bank during bad times,” said the president and CEO of the Raleigh, North Carolina-based hotel management and development company, during an interview at the 20th annual Lodging Conference.
Laport attributes that fact to both intelligence and luck.
The former is evident in projects such as Concord’s development of the Courtyard Cleveland University Circle, which opened several years ago in an off-the-hotel-developer-radar neighborhood in Cleveland’s near east side that boasts steady demand drivers from a nearby university and two major hospitals.
While much of the Greater Cleveland hotel market was suffering through the Great Recession, that hotel emerged as a solid performer.
“We felt a new hotel would make a lot of sense even though nothing was happening downtown and nothing was happening in the suburbs,” Laport said.
“It’s our wheelhouse to study markets whether they have the capacity for more hotels or not; we think we’re good at it,” he added. “We don’t go to feasibility companies. We do that feasibility in house.”
An example of good fortune came in September 2008 just before the Great Recession began to take hold. With the news of a Lehman Brothers collapse just days away, Concord’s executives unloaded a $440-million portfolio, giving them enough powder in the kegs to last well into the downturn.
“We took the contrarian view that the cycle would come again and we had sufficient cash,” Laport said. “Our investors that had co-invested for the first 20 years and now 30 years with us said, ‘We believe in what you’re doing. Keep doing it.’ And fortunately for us, there were a couple of lenders that stayed in the construction business.”
Crossing the 100 mark
Laport and his executive team have employed even more of those lenders of late as the company ramps up its construction business. At the end of 2014, Concord had a dozen or so hotels under construction from South Florida to New York City. The company was signed on to provide third-party management services for another five.
The most recent push is notable for two reasons, Laport said.
First, it represents the most ambitious pipeline in Concord’s 30-year history. And second, the openings soon will push the company over the century mark with more than 100 hotels in its portfolio.
The properties under development comprise flags from Hilton Worldwide Holdings, Marriott International, Hyatt Hotels Corporation and Choice Hotels International. The majority are select service.
When asked if he thinks recent development activity from Concord and a slew of others might contribute to overbuilding, Laport didn’t hesitate. “Yes. For sure.” But it’s not universal, he added.
While markets such as Nashville, Tennessee, and even Cleveland are at risk, he said, New York City—which has the most rooms under construction of any top market in the United States—is a proven outlier that keeps absorbing everything that gets thrown its way.
“If we have this interview next year, there will be more talk of (overbuilding). In two years there will be real talk of it, and in three years we’ll say, ‘We did it again.’”
30 years and counting
Laport didn’t point to any particular tipping point or seismic shift when reflecting on his past three decades in the business. Changes happen more gradually in the hotel space, he explained. And it’s a lot easier to prepare for them when you’re in the driver seat.
Concord has tried to position itself as such. Its executives sit on a number of franchise committees, pushing the big brands to create more relevant offerings for guests.
“We know we’re in a business of constant change,” Laport said. “We embrace it. We use our knowledge of (change) to comprehend it better than folks who aren’t making concentrated efforts as we do to take control of it.”
Embracing the unknown drives Laport and his team, he said.
“I’ve just been having so much fun for the past 30 years. I get up every day totally gassed about what’s going to happen the next day.”