Ground Up
When assessing ground up development opportunities, DSG focuses on assets where barriers to entry are high such as urban areas, sites near corporate or university campuses or near tightly controlled planned communities. With creativity and persistence, DSG has developed outstanding products with premier brands in multiple high-barrier markets. Successful execution examples include:
- Embassy Suites Hotel in Nashville, built on former restaurant land and a parking garage site adjacent to Vanderbilt University campus
- Four Points by Sheraton Cumberland House Hotel in Knoxville, forged from rental parcels between downtown and the University of Tennessee campus
Major Redevelopment
Some of the best investment opportunities are created from assets that are undervalued or under performing. When assessing redevelopment or repositioning opportunities, DSG analyzes the current environment and underlying structure of the relevant industry to craft a strategic business plan for a specific property. Options range from upgrading, rebranding and repositioning in its market to demolition and redevelopment under certain conditions.
DSG is often called on to develop and execute Product Improvement Plans (PIPs) for hospitality properties and, at times, to apply those same skills to multifamily, office and health-care facilities. Repositioning success stories include:
- One Commerce Square office tower in Memphis, where DSG led the acquisition, renovation and revitalization from low-occupancy, lender-held to vibrant, LEED-certified landmark with 80+ percent occupancy
- Marriott Courtyard hotel in Killeen, where DSG acquired the lender-held asset on favorable terms and is applying its expertise to reposition the hotel all-in at 60% of the cost of new construction
Risk-Alleviating Turn-Key Third-Party Services
DSG provides turn-key development services to institutional investors, such as REITs, real estate funds, pension funds and public companies. In appropriately structured transitions, we use our own capital sources and develop the asset with an agreement to deliver at a guaranteed price and on a date certain. We eliminate construction risk and any potential drag on earnings. This benefits the institutional investor tremendously.
Opportunities are sourced across the real estate industry through DSG relationships, which are based on confidence and performance. Recent turn-key third-party successes include:
- Le Meridien Hotel in Philadelphia, redeveloped within an historic 100-year-old structure a quarter mile of the $631 million convention center expansion and sold upon completion by previous agreement to HEI Hotels & Resorts of Norwalk, Conn.
It’s Complicated
Where others see obstacles and pitfalls, we see opportunities. Our principals have demonstrated abilities and demonstrated persistence in working through complicated transactions such as those involving new market tax credits, historic tax credits and bonds, as well as conventional forms of financing. Our project management and construction management skills enabled us to create an award-winning four-star Le Meridien Hotel through adaptive reuse of an historic 100-year-old YMCA building under the strict confines of the U.S. National Park Service restrictions.
Our authoritative knowledge, our proprietary methods and our determination to deliver uncommon results differentiate DSG from others.