Starwood Enters Mesa with Sheraton Brand - Analyst Blog

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. HOT announced its plans to open a new hotel in Mesa, a suburb located in the east of Phoenix, AZ, under its popular brand Sheraton. Slated to open in Mar 2015, the Sheraton Mesa Hotel will be owned and developed by River View Hotel, LLC and operated by Power hotels, LLC. This hotel will mark the entry of Starwood in Mesa, while it will be the sixth Sheraton hotel in greater Phoenix.

Mesa, the third largest city in Arizona, combines urban amenities with outdoor activities to provide visitors with the best of both worlds, including golf resorts, rugged recreation areas, museums and other attractions.

Located next to the Chicago Cubs' new spring training complex, this luxury brand hotel features 180 rooms. This training complex is a part of the Riverview re-development project that spans over 170 acres and includes a 15,000-seat stadium spring training facility and space for other sporting events. More importantly, this hotel will be located close to other top destinations like the Mesa Riverview shopping center and the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

This luxury brand hotel will offer various amenities like two full-service restaurants, bars, swimming pool, a fitness facility and a meeting and event space spread over an area of more than 30,000 square feet. Taking into account, the hotels' strategic location and the services provided, we believe that it serve both business as well as leisure travelers.

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, hotel demand in U.S. is again expected to exceed supply in 2014.  This offers the company an opportunity to raise its room rate, going forward.

This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company continues to focus on domestic expansion as evident from this current announcement.  Recently, the company announced the opening of two hotels, one under the Element brand in Gainesville, FL and the other under its upscale Westin Hotels & Resorts brand in Nashville, TN in 2017.

Some better-ranked stocks in the hotel industry include Intercontinental Hotels Group plc IHG, Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corp. VAC and Wyndham Worldwide Corp. WYN. All these stocks have a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

 

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