A new life for hotels : adaptively reusing limited service hospitality properties as workforce housing

Abstract

This thesis examines the potential for reinventing an existing asset class -- limited service hospitality properties -- as new workforce housing properties. Due to the cyclical demand profile, modest price points, and relatively fragmented ownership of limited service hotels in the United States, these properties often escape the attention of highly sophisticated investors and developers. Furthermore, as relatively low margin businesses, many of the properties are visually unappealing and have significant deferred maintenance needs. Coupled with this dynamic is the fact that the United States is facing a nationwide housing crisis and suffers from a structural shortage of affordably priced housing alternatives. This thesis examines the economics of limited-service hospitality assets; the growth of workforce housing as a residential asset class; and the potential for redeveloping legacy hospitality properties into new workforce housing. In order to supplement the aforementioned macro and secular analyses, this thesis also includes a case study of the redevelopment of an antiquated motel in Oceanside, California.