Redevelopers are pouncing on shuttered hotels – Axios

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/AxiosInterest in revitalizing or redeveloping closed hotel properties has been on the rise for the last decade — but it’s surged to new heights since the pandemic began.Why it matters: Vacant sites are a scourge to local property values and pose challenges, such as safety issues, to law enforcement, lawmakers and residents.By the numbers: 458 closed hotel properties were sold in 2022, marking at least the ninth straight year of increases, according to CoStar Group.The number has nearly tripled in a decade, rising from 160 in 2013 and 234 in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic.Between the lines: Shuttered hotels often still have “good bones” and thus make for excellent redevelopment opportunities, CoStar national director of hospitality analytics Jan Freitag tells Axios.”You have individual bedrooms, bathrooms — you often have a gym, you often have a pool, you have food and beverage setup already,” Freitag says. “It slots in theoretically quite nicely into eldercare facility, student housing or multifamily.”Be smart: Many hotels closed when travel demand plummeted early in the pandemic, with some of them even restricted from accepting reservations from certain travelers.That increased the pool of available properties for redevelopers.”Some property owners decided to shut
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