The Ralph Bivins Project – Podcast Guest Adam Lair

HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – RALPH BIVINS: Welcome to the Ralph Bivins Project. We’re here with Adam Lair. He leads the hospitality investment division at Partners Capital. Everybody knows the pandemic was not good for the hotel business and a lot of other businesses, but a lot of hotels really took it on the chin. Tell us a little bit about what’s going on with the hotel market lately.

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ADAM LAIR: Nationally, I think hotel performance surprised us in 2023. Coming out of the pandemic, hotels recovered pretty quickly. A lot of that was led by leisure. A lot of what we looked at in, call it coastal leisure markets, destination, drive-to-type markets, coastal Florida is one of the types of markets that spring to mind. A lot of those had a pretty significant pop from all the pent-up demand and international travel restrictions.

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RALPH BIVINS: Here in Houston, we had some pretty good reports. Downtown Houston occupancy was up 10 percent last year. I think we’ve got at least two new properties. One’s the Moxie on Main Street. It’s a boutique on lower Main Street. It’s about 100 rooms. There’s also a 17-story tower being constructed. I think it’s Homewood Suites and maybe Holiday Inn Express in a single tower. So, there’s a lot of upside in the downtown market.

ADAM LAIR: Houston is one of those markets where I think the story is bigger than COVID. It’s recovering still from 2014 and still trying to catch up with where it would have been in 2024 had that not happened. So, you kind of layer in COVID, and there’s a lot of runway in a market like this, and you’re starting to see that. So, I think it’s one of those where the past six months, as we’ve been kind of digging for deals, you’ve seen a lot of investors key in on Houston and a lot of stuff come onto the market. You know, Houston is one of those markets where you kind of have to pick and choose your spots from an investment perspective. I think what the market has craved, like San Francisco, is certainty. Where you can find that, the upside is pretty dramatic.

RALPH BIVINS: You’ve got a national perspective. You were at the HVS hotel consulting firm for a number of years and covered a lot of markets, so I think you’ve got a broad background. You then came here to Houston to work with the Partners Capital. I believe you guys closed on a property recently in San Marcos.

ADAM LAIR: Yeah, we bought the Hilton Garden Inn in San Marcos. We love it. We love that market. We’re excited about the growth potential. We see an opportunity. I would say a 10-year opportunity in extended stay and select service hotels. The model for those types of investments has a ton of upside for us. We just really love that product, and we love premium branded select serve and extended stay, Hilton and Marriott specifically. So, if we can find an asset like that, in a market like San Marcos, it’s a win all around for us.

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Adam Lair biography

A seasoned professional in commercial real estate, Adam Lair plays a pivotal role in shaping Partners Capital’s investment strategies as the managing director of their Hospitality Investments Division.

Before joining Partners Capital, he spent 12 years as a Managing Director and Senior Partner at HVS, a renowned hospitality consulting firm. He has underwritten more than 2,500 hotel transactions with a total asset value of more than $20 billion and was part of the leadership team that spearheaded HVS’ growth from fewer than 10 offices to more than 35 across the United States.

Adam received his Master of Business Administration from Georgetown University and his Bachelor of Arts degree from Louisiana State University.