EU: LaSalle Investment Management and tech-driven NUMA Group have partnered on a €500 million pan-European urban hotel aggregation strategy.
The partnership will seek to acquire, refurbish and operate vacant or soon-to-be-vacant urban hotels, serviced and extended-stay apartments, boutique hotels, and conversion projects from non-institutional or urbanded owners/operators.
These properties will be designed, managed and operated by NUMA Group.
Targeting city-centre locations, the JV has already established a pipeline of 15 assets in the UK, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands, representing over €450 million in value.
Refurbishments are expected to take between six and 18 months, and will include rooms for short, medium and long-term stays. Various sustainability standards such as hybrid ventilation and water recycling strategies are anticipated to secure Excellent or Outstanding BREEAM assessments.
LaSalle and NUMA have a goal to achieve a net-zero carbon status across the portfolio by 2050.
Michael Zerda, head of debt and value-add strategies at LaSalle, said: “This venture exemplifies the growing symbiosis between technology and real state. We are excited to help improve the urban short stay, long stay hospitality experience alongside a strong tech partner like NUMA.”
Blake Loveless, head of value-add investments at LaSalle, added: “As Covid restrictions ease across Europe, tourism-led markets in leisure travel destinations, as well as European city centres more generally, will continue to rebound. This strategic partnership with NUMA will capitalise on this by providing a trusted, high-quality, and tech-enabled product with seamless consumer experience in markets that have fragmented hotel stocks.”
Dimitri Chandogin, president of NUMA Group, said: “The strategic partnership further strengthens NUMA’s position as the leading tech enabled alternative accommodation provider. Our clear goal is to establish NUMA as the dominant solution provider for a completely new generation of hotels and short stay accommodations in Europe.
“NUMA’s strategic partnership with LaSalle is another milestone in institutionalising the alternative accommodation segment and offering a professional investment solution for the fragmented European hospitality market, especially for owner operators.”
Philipp Rohweder, director of real estate at NUMA Group, added: “Our partnership with LaSalle underscores our ability to offer institutional fully integrated and seamless tech-enabled hospitality solutions. We expect the hospitality sector to continue benefiting from on-going mega trends, consumer shifts, as well as the overall post-pandemic recovery. With LaSalle, we have found a partner with strong real estate experience and network across Europe with whom we will continue our successful growth story in the European hospitality sector.”
Berlin-based NUMA Group is a digital hotel operator and technology developer. The company operates over 2,700 units in Europe including Berlin, Munich, Rome, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona and Vienna.
LaSalle Investment Management managements approximately $77 billion of assets in private equity, debt and public real estate investments as of Q3 2021.
The group’s value-add investments is part of LaSalle’s $10 billion debt and value-add strategies platform in Europe, which targets real estate investments with a focus on conviction investment themes and dislocation opportunities.
