When the Heathman Hotel hit the market back in 2015, hospitality giant LaSalle Hotel Properties wasn't the only interested party. Portland-based Provenance Hotels went after the Heathman, too.
LaSalle ended up landing the deal, paying $64.3 million for the downtown hotel.
Now, however, Provenance is getting somewhat of a second crack to get in on the Heathman. LaSalle has hired Provenance to take over management of the hotel, effective Feb. 13.
"We wanted to buy it, but we didn't get there," said Bashar Wali, president of Provenance. "We didn't go home crying or anything. Frankly we were happy they bought it because we are believers that quality competitors make everybody better.
"Fast-forward two years and we get a call from them about wanting us to manage the hotel. It was a great compliment and we said yes."
Provenance will take over management of the hotel from JRK Hotel Group, which had been managing the hotel since at least the time of LaSalle's acquisition of it. Wali said Provenance taking over speaks less to one company's ability to run the hotel and more about the right fit between owner and operator.
"It's not necessarily the qualifications," he said, "it's the chemistry."
As managers of the Heathman, Provenance will head up all of the day-to-day operations of the hotel. It will also oversee some sizable changes, most notably a multimillion-dollar renovation that Wali said will likely kick off in the fourth quarter of this year. He was not able to provide specifics on what LaSalle has in mind for the renovation, but said a good parallel example would be what Provenance did to transform the downtown Governor Hotel into the Sentinel. That $6 million project updated guest rooms, meeting spaces and ballrooms.
"We want to re-elevate the experience that was the Heathman and bring it into today's world," he said, "bring it back to its glory days."
The revamp will also put Provenance's Portland touch on the Heathman, beefing up the hotel's ties to the local maker, art and foodie scene. The hotel is already home to Portland chef Vitaly Paley's new Headwaters restaurant, which opened late last year. Paley is also behind Imperial, the restaurant inside Provenance's Hotel Lucia.
Taking on the Heathman bumps up the number of Portland hotels that Provenance owns and/or operates, which will hit six when Dossier opens this summer and the Woodlark opens next year. That's in addition to several projects Provenance has going on outside the Northwest, as well as hotels it owns in Washington, New Orleans and Nashville.
Wali said Provenance won't have to grow its own staff as a result of the Heathman deal. The hotel's current general manager, Daryn White, has been with the Heathman since September and will remain on board.
"We are just thrilled to show what we can do with the Heathman," Wali said. "This really validates the strength and capability of our team, collectively, to be hired by someone we respect in a market we dominate."