NewHavenBIZ

36 n e w h a v e n B I Z | M a y / J u n e 2 0 1 9 | n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m The Disability Employment Initiative is Good for Business "It introduced me to a whole new network of workers. These individuals are committed, loyal, and steady. It's been nearly 10 years since I first discovered these individuals and they have all contributed to whatever successes we may have achieved." Dino Maniatis, Owner of the Hornet's Nest Deli, Branford, CT. Miraj Medhat (r) was placed by the Branford Transition Academy, funded in part by Workforce Alliance and the Disability Employment Initiative. Contact Workforce Alliance's Disability Resource Coordinator about incentives and assistance to hire people with disabilities: Barbara Green (203) 867-4030 x 239 or bgreen@workforcealliance.biz Workforce Alliance is the regional workforce development board serving South Central CT. The Disability Employment Initiative is implemented by Workforce Alliance, through a grant from the CT Dept. of Labor's Office of Workforce Competitiveness. For information on the Branford Transition Academy, contact Jackie Dunn, Transition Specialist, at (203) 488-5000. F O C U S : H o t e l s a need for guests seeking longer stays, such as visiting professors, contract workers, and family mem- bers of hospital patients. Rates vary, but start at around $250 a night. So far, early signs are good, he said, calling the Blake's February launch — in the dead of winter and months ahead of Yale's busy season — the most successful in his five-hotel portfolio. (His RMS Cos. also owns Hartford's historic Goodwin Hotel and three others in Fairfield County.) "ey all launched well but this one has exceeded the others," he said during an early April conver- sation. "is past weekend we had 70 of 108 rooms sold, and for a launch that's really quick." Perhaps not surprisingly, the hotel is booked for Yale's com- mencement weekend (May 17-20) and is already taking names for the Class of 2020. "e demand was there and our product is so unique to the mar- ket," says Salvatore, who declines to say how much he invested in the hotel. "It's something different. It's New York coming to New Haven." Crowding the market? With at least four new lodging projects in the pipeline behind the Blake, is there a risk of too many rooms down the road? Possibly, say hotel operators. "Some of those projects are further along in the pipeline than others, so it'll be interesting to see if they all get built. I'm not sure if there's enough demand for that," says Salvatore. "But the way I look at it, if the supply comes, we've got to be better." New Haven's hotel occupancy rate was on par with the national average in 2018, at 66.8 percent, although it's risen by nearly 9 percent since 2014, according to figures provided by hotel market data firm STR. (Occupancy rises to around 75 percent during peak months.) Over the last five years, the average room rate has risen 18 percent, from $119 in 2014 to $140 last year, the data show. City officials, however, say the numbers don't tell the entire story. "A national firm might look at the data and say, 'Well, that's just an av- erage market.' But one of the things this [economic development] team has looked at is the value of a sub- market," Piscitelli said. "If you're at a conference at Yale, you want to be downtown. If you're visiting Yale looking for schools, you want to be downtown." Developers like Salvatore are betting demand will rise in re- sponse to the new inventory, just as it surged when a new crop of luxu- ry downtown apartment buildings went up earlier this decade. "Previous to those being built, people decided to live in the sub- urbs because there weren't enough quality housing options here," he says. "It's the same for hotels." Longtime hotel operators in the Elm City are keeping an eye on the new competition, but say they are confident each of their hotels fills a distinct need. "We feel like our place is solid, given where we are [located] and the relationship that we've built with the university," said Study Hotels founder Paul McGowan, who opened the chain's first hotel, the Study at Yale, on Chapel Street in 2008. He said the Study carved its own niche 10 years ago by helping guests feel connected to the Ivy League community. Beyond the Yale-themed décor, the hotel offers special programming tied to campus events like commence- ment and alumni weekends. "It's worked very well and we've got a longstanding reputation in New Haven," McGowan says. Meanwhile the Omni, with 306 rooms and 22,000 square feet of meeting space, is targeting "a whole different type of business than these other hotels can even try to go aer," says Director of Sales and Marketing Dana Zim- merman. "We have always had to have a different sell concept than everyone else." Zimmerman says the Omni has the ability to handle events of up to 700 people, filling a void in a city that lacks a large conference and convention center. "Nobody else can do those num- bers unless you go to the Trumbull Marriott, and then you're really outside of New Haven," Zimmer- man says. e Omni is also upgrading its product, with plans to renovate the mezzanine-level conference space this summer and give guestrooms a refresh in the fall, she adds. "It'd be silly not to have some slight concern" about the new competition, she acknowledges, noting the industry was dealt a double blow with the loss of Alexion's headquarters and the Connecticut Open tennis tourna- ment, which was sold this year and relocated to China. "We hope that there's going to be new business to come along with [the new hotels]." City officialss are optimistic. Visit New Haven's Kozlowski says the new inventory will better po- sition New Haven to compete for citywide events and conferences — business it has lost in the past to other cities offering more plentiful hotel accommodations. She adds that the new hotels will also bolster efforts to sell the Elm City as a tourist destination — and not just for daytrippers touring Yale or seeing a show at the Shubert. She points to the annual Yale Innovation Summit taking place this month, which last year drew 1,000 attendees from more than 60 venture capital firms. "In the past, they might have driven in for the day [from places like New York]," she says. "Now that we have more product, hopefully we can convince some of those people to stay here longer." n Continued from Page 35

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