A Dallas billionaire who owns Omni Hotels & Resorts received small business relief loans of up to $84 million for his holding company and 15 hotels.
The forgivable loans to Robert Rowling’s TRT Holdings and Omni hotels in 12 states were detailed in data released this week by the U.S. Small Business Administration. The data provided only a range for loan amounts, meaning Rowling’s companies received anywhere from $36 million up to $84 million from the government program originally created to help small businesses keep employees on payroll during the pandemic.
Five Paycheck Protection Program loans went to TRT Holdings. Its Dallas-based Omni Hotels & Resort, which has 60 luxury hotels in the U.S., received an additional 15 loans. The companies told the SBA that the loans allowed them to save a total of 6,142 jobs. To qualify for a loan, a business must have 500 or fewer employees. However, a hotel company could apply for a loan for each of its locations.
Omni’s business was “drastically impacted” by the pandemic, the company said in a statement. Before COVID-19, its hotels were 70% full but now some are operating with single-digit occupancy and some remain closed.
Three of Omni’s five Dallas-Fort Worth hotels have reopened after being temporarily closed during the pandemic. The company said 31% of its local workers are back on the job.
“We’re grateful to have participated in the PPP loan program, and it is instrumental to our survival during this pandemic,” the company stated.
The program’s loans ignited a controversy in May when Dallas hotelier Monty Bennett’s companies were returned at least $69 million in the loan money when SBA changed its rules for who qualified. His collection of luxury hotels were considered the biggest PPP recipient at the time, when only loan amounts to public companies were known.
The new data was released after a lawsuit from a group of media companies. The loan program, part of the $2 trillion CARES Act, was designed to help businesses with 500 or fewer employees keep workers on their payroll during the pandemic.
In Texas, a total of 4,074 hotels received loans. The recipients said that allowed them to keep 74,874 jobs. Altogether, Texas hotels received between $395.3 million and $712.1 million.
The loans have acted as a temporary bandage on an industry ravaged by the pandemic.
U.S. hotel revenues fell 83% year-over-year in April, according to hotel tracking firm STR. It was the worst hit industry that month in terms of job losses, with nearly half of all positions in the industry cut, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
As states open up, the industry is seeing hints of recovery. But occupancy rates were still at just 46.2% for the week ended June 27, a 39% decrease from the year earlier, STR reported. Revenue per room was down 56.5% for the same period.
Experts don’t expect the industry to recover until 2023. The Texas Hotel and Lodging Association said it’s receiving between 150 and 190 inquiries a day from hotel operators about how to navigate their reopenings.
In the new SBA data, only companies that were given more than $150,000 were listed by name while the others remained anonymous. Companies could apply for a loan at each of its locations with 500 or fewer employees. That means big recipients could still be hidden if they received less than $150,000 for a location.
Omni Hotels & Resorts
The loans for Omni Hotels & Resort -- 11 of which were in the range between $2 million and $5 million -- totaled between $30 million and $71 million and saved 4,821 jobs. The chain’s website said it has 20,000 associates but didn’t specify if that was pre-pandemic.
The biggest loan recipient was its upscale 1930s-era Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. The location, a 10-minute walk from the National Zoo, received a $5 million to $10 million loan that saved 486 jobs.
Two of its Texas locations received loans in the $2 million to $5 million range. The Omni Fort Worth Hotel in downtown Fort Worth, which has 614 guest rooms, used the money to save 424 jobs. The Four Diamond Omni La Mansion del Rio on San Antonio’s River Walk, which has 326 guest rooms and suites, saved 410 jobs.
The hotels’ private holding company, TRT, received an additional five loans totaling between $6 million and $13 million that saved a total of 1,321 jobs. TRT’s loans went toward additional properties, including a $1 million to $2 million loan for its 12-story Omni Dallas Hotel at Park West and a $2 million to $5 million loan for its Omni Corpus Christi Hotel, which has 475 guest rooms and suites.
Thirteen of the loans came from Ruston, La.-based Origin Bank, while six were from Arlington-based Affiliated Bank.
NewcrestImage
Lewisville-based NewcrestImage, which has 25 hotels in Texas, received three loans totaling between $850,000 and $2,350,000 and retained 64 jobs. The loans, all of which were written by Amarillo National Bank, were for its investments, management and construction companies.
The privately-owned company opened its 150-room Canopy by Hilton hotel at Frisco Station last month in the midst of stay at home orders and canceled events. It joined an AC Hotel and Residence Inn already at the mixed-use development project.
MCR Hotels
Another loan recipient was MCR, which is headquartered in Dallas and New York.
Started in 2006, it’s now the fifth-largest hotel operator in the U.S. with a $3 billion portfolio of 86 hotels in 13 states, including 22 in Texas. The company has 3,600 employees and operates under 11 Marriott and Hilton brands.
It received eight loans -- all from Dallas-based Dominion Bank -- that added up to between $20 million and $44 million and saved 2,342 jobs. The biggest loan went to fund MCR’s property management, which received $5 million to $10 million.
MCR opened The Courtyard by Marriott Newark Downtown in New Jersey in 2012 as an attractive option for travelers, who can get to the Newark Liberty International Airport in 10 minutes from the hotel. The airport is popular for those traveling in and out of New York City.
On the other side of Manhattan, MCR owns the only on-airport hotel at John F. Kennedy International Airport, the TWA Hotel. It also owns the photogenic 1,050-room Wyndham New Yorker hotel, minutes from the Empire State Building and often seen in pictures of the city’s skyline.
