PITTSBURGH—The 23rd Cambria Suites hotel is by far the most unique of the brand, and one Choice Hotels International executive Tuesday went as far as to call it the brand’s “flagship” hotel.
“You are now standing in the flagship brand for Choice and the flagship hotel for the Cambria brand,” said Bruce Haase, executive VP of global brands, marketing, and operations for Choice, at the opening ceremony for the Cambria Suites Pittsburgh at Consol Energy Center.
The property—owned and managed by Horizon Hospitality—is the first Cambria Suites in a primary market. It signals the beginning of a second wave of Cambrias expected to focus more on urban markets, Haase said.
To spur development in top markets, the Choice Hotels board of directors has approved the investment of US$20 million to US$40 million per year for the next several years in the Cambria Suites brand. These investments enable Choice to offer financing to franchisees, partner in the investment of the hotels, or acquire and resell real estate to incent franchise development.
The Pittsburgh property is unique not only to the Cambria portfolio but in other aspects, too. It was jointly funded by Horizon—a private developer—and the Pittsburgh Penguins NHL organization. The hotel sits adjacent to the Penguins’ new home ice, the LEED-Silver Consol Energy Center, which is in its first year of operation.
Horizon’s portfolio consists of five hotels in the Western Pennsylvania area, including another Cambria Suites in Washington, Pennsylvania. The company’s foundation is in commercial development, it developed corporate headquarters for Dick’s Sporting Goods in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, and Consol Energy in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. Horizon opened its first hotel just five years ago, and spun off a management arm to operate its own hotels three years ago.
Both Haase and Mark De Intinis, GM of the hotel, applauded Horizon CEO Rod Piatt for moving ahead to secure financing and get a hotel built when a lot of other developers were sitting on their hands.
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Guestroom at the Cambria Suites in Pittsburgh. |
“At a time when everyone was squirreling money away, Rod was not only developing a flagship hotel for Cambria Suites, he was creating partnerships with Consol and the Lower Hill District,” De Intinis said. “That was one of the things I found to be very attractive: the fact that while everyone was waiting around to see what was going to happen with the economy, he had this plan and it made sense and everyone believed in him.”
The Hill District is a collection of neighborhoods on Pittsburgh’s East Side, and the hotel and the hockey rink sit at the base of that hill. In conjunction with the city, Horizon opened up employment opportunities to residents of The Hill neighborhoods before accepting applications from elsewhere. As a result, more than 50% of employees at the hotel are locals, Piatt said.
De Intinis said he knew the property was special, but when Haase declared it Cambria’s flagship property thus far, it “struck the pride nerve.”
“I know there are a lot of eyes on us,” he said. “In a few years hopefully Cambria can have 10 or 12 more like this.”
The flagship tag does add slightly more pressure to succeed, De Intinis said, but it also means Choice will offer full support and that any ideas from the property level are going to be entertained. Besides, De Intinis is confident in his market, and said Pittsburgh hotels don’t see the regular peaks and valleys other markets do. He pointed to the Penguins organization as a solid demand driver. And if Choice takes the right steps to grow and market the Cambria brand, his hotel won’t fail, he said.
De Intinis said if Choice, along with his sales and marketing team, can build consumer confidence in the Cambria brand, he is optimistic the hotel can see occupancy in the 65% to 70% range in its first year.
“Brand recognition is going to be our biggest challenge,” De Intinis said. “Once you start telling people we’re the official hotel of the Penguins and that the Penguins have some equity interest, people will believe in it.”