Hotel deep-six (The Deal Magazine)
he Noble Organization, a hotel real estate fund, management and development group, should be perfectly situated in today’s distressed commercial property environment. The number of hotel-related defaults has exploded in the past year or so and now reaches $32.3 billion, according to real estate research firm Real Capital Analytics Inc., and “isn’t even at its peak,” says Noble founder and CEO Mitesh Shah.
Meanwhile, Shah’s group sits on more than two-thirds of its current $310 million private equity fund targeting distressed hotels. Noble operations teams have experience in everything from luxury to budget properties and feel comfortable in all sorts of geographies.
So when did Atlanta-based Noble last do a deal? May 2008. “It’s been a tough wait,” Shah acknowledges.