When undertaking ground up development, we focus on developing assets in areas with high barriers to entry such as urban areas, on or near corporate or collegiate campuses, and in or near tightly controlled planned communities.
Three examples of our execution on this approach are: our development of the Le Meridien Hotel in downtown Philadelphia, Pennsylvania within ¼ mile of the convention center; our development of the Embassy Suites Hotel adjacent to the campus of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee and our development of the Sheraton Cumberland House Hotel in Knoxville, Tennessee adjacent to the campus of the University of Tennessee. Through creativity and persistence we found ways to develop outstanding products with premier brands in markets with high barriers to entry where there were supposedly “no hotel sites available”.
Redevelopment or Repositioning
Some of the best investment opportunities are created assets that are undervalued or under performing. Assessing the current environment based on a thorough structural analysis of the industry (both macro and local market) provides the insights necessary to develop a successful strategic business plan for the property. Options range from upgrading, re-branding (hotels) and repositioning the asset to, in certain situations, demolishing and redeveloping.
Opportunistic Development
This entails acquiring projects or taking a controlling interest in projects that have “problems”. These problems may include things like: under capitalization, poor management, inappropriate positioning, or poor marketing.
Core Strategy
Our core strategy is to produce above average returns with moderate and low risk volatility. Historically, develops and operates assets through stabilization and sells the stabilized real estate assets to institutional investors such REITs or real estate funds.
Turn-Key Development for Third Parties
DSG is also one of the very few developers who, in appropriately structured transactions, provide turn-key development services to institutional investors of real estate such as REITs, public companies, real estate funds and pension funds. In these transactions, we develop the real estate asset utilizing our own capital sources with an agreement to deliver the asset at a guaranteed price and guaranteed date of completion to the institutional owner. This is extremely beneficial to institutional owners as we eliminate construction risks and the “drag” on earnings associated with construction in process
Development opportunities are sourced through relationships in the real estate community, development community, banking community, law firms, and other real estate service providers. The principals of DSG have excellent relationships and high credibility within each of these important partnership groups.
