Dive Brief:
- Marriott International broke ground Wednesday on the inaugural location of its newly launched midscale extended stay brand, StudioRes.
- The hotel, located in Fort Myers, Florida, is being developed by Concord Hospitality and real estate private equity company Whitman Peterson, and is projected to open in spring 2025.
- With the brand milestone, Marriott kickstarted construction on StudioRes’ significant pipeline. During a November earnings call, Marriott President and CEO Anthony Capuano said the company was in talks for StudioRes deals in more than 300 U.S. markets. The groundbreaking also marks progress in Marriott’s midscale segment push.
Dive Insight:
The first StudioRes groundbreaking comes after months of “terrific” interest from owners and developers that generated a strong pipeline of deal activity, Capuano detailed during the company’s Q3 earnings call.
When the brand first launched in June, Marriott’s global development officer for the U.S. and Canada Noah Silverman told Hotel Dive the product was designed with owners and developers in mind and would be Marriott’s most affordable cost-per-room product to build.
At the time of the launch, Silverman said there were three StudioRes hotels set to break ground before year-end 2023, and Marriott was in discussions with owners for more than 250 development opportunities.
While development of the first StudioRes properties was delayed slightly, more are currently in the works. Concord Hospitality plans to break ground on several more StudioRes properties in the coming months, according to Marriott. And in total, the developer expects to build around 50 StudioRes hotels, spanning several dozen submarkets in major U.S. cities.
With the growth of StudioRes, Marriott claims stake in the midscale segment in the U.S. and Canada, which it first entered with the brand launch. The company plans to see significant rooms growth by 2025, bolstered in part by its expansion in the midscale segment.
