New Castle Hotels & Resorts Selected to Manage Nine Widewaters Properties
New Castle Hotels & Resorts, a leading hotel investor, developer and operator in the United States and Canada, announced that it has been selected to manage nine hotels owned by Widewaters, a diversified commercial real estate organization with expertise developing, acquiring and managing numerous asset classes across North America, including retail, hospitality, residential and office/industrial. The management change, effective February 2023, will increase New Castle's portfolio to 28 hotels, comprising more than 4,000 rooms across 11 states and two Canadian Provinces.
"We are thrilled to have been selected to manage the Widewaters Hotel Portfolio, further expanding our third-party management business and overall presence in the Northeastern United States," said Julian Buffam, Partner at New Castle Hotels & Resorts. "We will be adding tremendous talent that is in place across multiple disciplines at the corporate and property levels. This is an exciting opportunity to further grow our management team with seasoned hospitality professionals."
New Castle and Widewaters first joined forces in the late 1990s to develop the Hampton Inn & Suites in Victor, N.Y., and have since developed 13 additional hotels in the Northeastern United States and Atlantic Canada with notable brands including Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Inn, Homewood Suites, Sheraton, Residence Inn, SpringHill Suites and Courtyard by Marriott.
The Widewaters Portfolio of four full-service and five select-service properties include more than 1,200 rooms, six restaurants, 85,000 square-feet of meeting space, a full-service spa and USGA-rated golf course. The portfolio spans five states including:
Woodcliff Hotel & Spa - Fairport, N.Y.
Craftsman Inn & Suites - Fayetteville, N.Y.
Cherry Valley Hotel and Ohio Event Center, BW Premier Collection - Newark, Ohio
Aviator Hotel & Suites, BW Signature Collection - St. Louis, Mo.
Hilton Garden Inn - Pittsford, N.Y.
Hampton Inn & Suites - Victor, N.Y.
Hampton Inn - Solon, Ohio
Hampton Inn - Erie, Pa.
Hyatt House - Herndon, Va.
"This is a tremendous opportunity to expand our existing partnership with Widewaters. Our familiarity with the portfolio and strong presence in the Northeast will help execute a smooth transition and drive incremental asset value growth," said New Castle COO Guido Kerpel. "The properties will further benefit from the depth and strength of our shared services platform, which optimizes property level focus and success through centralized efficiencies, controls and best practices."
Widewaters has an incredible pedigree of developing first-class hotel assets and plans to continue to develop hotels opportunistically with New Castle, while shifting its core focus to expanding its multifamily portfolio. "This enhanced partnership with New Castle is the most effective way to continue to build value in our hotel assets, while aligning ourselves with an experienced and active owner-operator for future hotel development opportunities," says Joe Scuderi, President of Widewaters. "Widewaters will maintain ownership of the nine properties, with current COO Bob Spoto transitioning to Head of Asset Management and working with the New Castle team to drive top and bottom-line results across our portfolio."
2022 has been a year of significant growth for New Castle, having acquired the beachfront Holiday Inn Resort on Jekyll Island in Georgia and an independent hotel in Texas that will join Marriott's Tribute Portfolio. Additionally, the firm assumed management of two properties on Long Island - the Residence Inn and Hilton Garden Inn in Riverhead, N.Y. Several acquisitions and development projects slated for 2023 will see New Castle enter markets in Nashville, Tenn.; Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; and Montana.
Widewaters has recently sold several hotel properties, including the 229-room Charter Hotel Seattle, Curio Collection by Hilton, and is currently pursuing multifamily opportunities in the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Utah and Arizona.