BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
This market has traditionally been very strong for Pollin/Miller Hospitality Strategies Inc., a hotel management company based in Washington, D.C. PMHS has been in the Baltimore market since 2006 and currently has four properties there, including a 280-room Hilton, a 151-room Hilton Garden Inn, a 100-room Homewood Suites, and a 155-room Aloft.
“The convention calendar seems strong going forward, and passenger counts at Baltimore/Washington International airport have been growing year over year,” says Joseph Bojanowski, president of PMHS. “Specifically, the upscale market has excelled for us year after year in Baltimore.”
However, the Baltimore area was negatively affected by the sequestration and budget cuts from defense and government services. Earlier in 2013, because of the sequestration, business slowed but bounced back in June, and Bojanowski predicts a strong remainder of 2013. In fact, the Baltimore market is so strong that PMHS plans to bring another unnamed hotel brand into the market.
Pipeline
With the largest supply of rooms of these five hot markets, Baltimore had 33,186 rooms as of the first quarter of 2013. But on the basis of the strong demand, developers continue to plan new Baltimore projects, with 30 projects accounting for 4,462 rooms in the construction pipeline up to and beyond 2015, according to Lodging Econometrics.
Job growth
Baltimore added 10,900 jobs in the professional and business services fields from March 2012 to March 2013. Overall, Baltimore’s professional and business services employment grew 5.4 percent, which tops the national growth of 3.2 percent, since March 2012.
