Laurus Checks In at Pittsburgh’s DoubleTree Green Tree

By Adriana Pop, Associate Editor

A new owner has emerged for the DoubleTree by Hilton Pittsburgh, a 460-key hotel located along the Parkway West in Green Tree that ranks as the metro’s fourth-largest lodging facility.

DoubleTree by Hilton Pittsburgh in Green Tree, Pa.

California-based Laurus Corp. has recently purchased the full-service property for an undisclosed amount, with plans to invest another $7 million into its refurbishment and also add an Asado Grill restaurant.

Previous owner RIDA Development Corp. recently invested $20 million into extensive renovations at the hotel, which it completed about two years ago.

DoubleTree Green Tree is also the largest Pittsburgh hotel within the Hilton family of brands, with a prominent position as an anchor lodging facility for city-wide conventions and events. The property features nearly 40,000 square feet of flexible, multi-functional meeting space–one of the largest concentrations of space in the region–as well as a 13,000 square-foot indoor athletic training center, which draws professional and college sports teams participating in regional events. The property’s new management team is TPG Hospitality.

The motivating factors that prompted Laurus to buy the property pertain to Pittsburgh’s vibrant economy, which outperforms both the United States as a whole and several key benchmark cities. Beyond its historic strengths in advanced manufacturing, the region has emerged as a hub for financial and business services, healthcare and life sciences, education and information, as well as communications technology. Recognized as a new center of American energy, Pittsburgh is also significant in terms of natural gas production, which will continue to expand in the foreseeable future.

“Based on the sheer strength of the local employment market, which draws hundreds of thousands of business travelers to the area every year, our team had flagged Pittsburgh as an absolutely essential region for Laurus to delve into in 2015,” Jean Paul Szita, president of Laurus Corp. said in prepared remarks. “After carefully examining the inventory in the market, we are tremendously pleased with our purchase of the DoubleTree Green Tree. Extremely well-located, we believe our investors will agree there is incredible upside potential for this recently renovated and high quality property that expertly serves the true drivers of the hospitality market–corporate business, conferences and weddings.”

DoubleTree Green Tree marks Laurus’ second acquisition in the Pittsburgh area. The team also acquired an office building at 501 Technology Drive in 2012.