Nicholas joins Savills as global head of hotels

London, UK Savills has welcomed George Nicholas as the global head of its hotels teams. Based at the firm’s Margaret St. headquarters in London, he will lead the growth of the division across the European, Asia Pacific, Australian and US markets. Nicholas has 17 years experience in the global hotel investment industry and joins from JLL where he was executive vice president in the hotels and hospitality group. At JLL Nicholas headed the global hotel desk for EMEA and specialized in cross-border capital flows and coordinating the business’s trophy hotel sales. Prior to this, Nicholas was director of hotels at CBRE and associate director at Colliers International Australia. He was involved in some of the most high profile hotel transactions of recent years including Marriott Grosvenor Square, the InterContinental London Park Lane and the Eagle Portfolio of 42 Marriott hotels. Mark Ridley, CEO Savills UK & Europe, comments: “George’s wealth of knowledge and experience spans several continents and his strong relationships with key global clients will help expedite the flow of cross-border capital. We are extremely pleased to be welcoming him to the business at a time when the hotels market continues to go from strength to strength.  His truly global perspective will be an invaluable asset as we look to grow and develop our hotels offer across Europe and beyond.” Nicholas said, “With hotel transaction volumes across the globe already surpassing $54 billion (£35.2 billion) in 2015, this is a very exciting time for the market.  Over the next 18 months, we will be focussing on large scale European and USA gateway city assets supplying the demand generated from our significant Asia Pacific investor base.  Growing the global hotels platform with “best in class” hotel real estate and banking experts will also be a key aim and we will be actively looking to recruit with this in mind.” Savills recently acted on the sale of the landmark Japanese hotel portfolio of ANA Crowne Plaza hotels in Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Kanazawa and Toyama.  Acquired by Hoshino Resort Co. Ltd, the sale is recognised as one of the largest hotel portfolio transactions in Asia this year. Additionally, Savills and its Norwegian associate Heilo Eiendom have been instructed by Avinor to sell the Radisson Blu Oslo Airport Hotel in Norway.  The extensively refurbished 500-bedroom property, which is currently let to Rezidor Hotels Norway AS, is one of the largest single asset hotel investment opportunities to be brought to market in Europe in 2015. In the UK, Savills sold the 170-bedroom Kingsway Hall hotel in London’s Covent Garden to Shiva Hotels on behalf of Cola Holdings in autumn 2014.  More recently, the firm launched a UK portfolio of regional country house hotels on behalf of Prima Hotels Ltd. Located across Cheshire, South Yorkshire and Leicestershire the portfolio is offered at a guide price in excess of £18 million.