Loews plans to grow to 50 hotels with acquisitions, including in Houston and San Francisco

With a series of recent acquisitions bringing its roster to 21 hotels, Loews Hotels and Resorts is poised to make the leap to more than double the size of its portfolio in relatively quick fashion, according to Troy Furbay, chief investment officer...the hotel brand will continue to aggressively use parent company Loews Corporation’s balance sheet to maintain its acquisition mode.

“We’re likely to grow five hotels a year, which won’t get us to the goal of 50 that we want to have in three years, so along the way there will be a company acquisition or portfolio acquisition to get us up to scale that way,” Furbay said. “The right size (of portfolio) for us would be to buy 10, a dozen or 15 hotels in one deal. Buying a portfolio of properties requires the same work and fundamentals as buying one, so it’s a reasonable way for us to grow quickly.”

Top priorities for further expansion include San Francisco, Hawaii, Denver and Houston. Loews would also like to get back into Europe, where at one time it had properties in London and Monte Carlo, said Furbay, who joined Loews two years ago.