AHIP Names Jonathan Korol New CEO

VANCOUVER, BC—American Hotel Income Properties REIT LP (AHIP) has appointed Jonathan Korol as its CEO, effective Oct. 7. He replaces John O’Neill, one of AHIP’s co-founders, who has advised the board of his retirement.

Korol comes to his new role from SilverBirch Hotels & Resorts, where he has been president since February 2017. At SilverBirch, he oversaw one of Canada’s largest hotel owner/operators with a portfolio of close to 5,000 guestrooms operated under internationally recognized brands. Before becoming president, Korol led SilverBirch’s investment and portfolio management team as SVP, where he managed all of the firm’s acquisition, disposition, development and asset management activities. Before joining SilverBirch, he co-founded Amadeus Property Partners, a private real estate investment fund focused on investing in select-service hotels and retail and multifamily properties in gateway markets throughout North America. He spent the formative part of his career at Apollo Real Estate Advisors (now Ares Management), where he was a VP focusing on equity and debt investing in all property types.

“[Jonathan] is a seasoned real estate professional with significant experience across North America in all aspects of hospitality properties and has an impressive track record of success on both sides of the border,” noted Michael Murphy, chair of AHIP’s board of directors. “Jonathan’s appointment was unanimously supported by our board. We believe that his appointment will accelerate the execution of the next chapter of AHIP’s strategic plan.”

As CEO, Korol will lead the executive team at AHIP and will work with the board to refine and fulfill AHIP’s strategic plan. He will also oversee and work with AHIP’s internal asset management and corporate finance teams to maximize the performance of AHIP’s existing portfolio and identify suitable M&A and capital recycling strategies to ensure the company maintains an optimal mix of properties and capital to drive strong long-term value for its unitholders. While Korol will be based in Vancouver, he will be traveling frequently to review AHIP’s portfolio and to meet with key partners as well as investors.

“I would like to thank the board for providing me with this unique opportunity. I look forward to working with the board and management team on the next exciting phase of AHIP’s evolution,” said Korol. “I believe that AHIP’s hotel portfolio, with its focus on premium-branded select-service hotels in secondary drive-to markets, is among the best positioned North American hospitality platforms to withstand and quickly recover from the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

O’Neill will retire after serving as CEO since October 2018.

“We thank John for his strong leadership over the past two years, particularly as AHIP navigated the unprecedented challenges faced by the U.S. hotel industry in light of the COVID-19 pandemic over the past six months,” said Murphy. “He also successfully led the sale of AHIP’s Economy Lodging portfolio for $215.5 million and the concurrent redeployment of those proceeds into a portfolio of 12 premium-branded hotels during latter 2019 to reshape and improve the quality of our hotel portfolio. We will miss John’s leadership and integrity but look forward to his continued support as one of AHIP’s largest unitholders.”

“It was an honor to lead AHIP over the past two years,” said O’Neill. “I look forward to spending more time with my family in my retirement and pursuing some new endeavors. I will miss the amazing AHIP team and board, but will continue to strongly support AHIP and Mr. Korol, who is an exceptional leader, as he takes the company forward.”

He added, “AHIP has indeed fared better than many hospitality companies in light of the impacts of COVID-19 and is well positioned to succeed and grow in the future. Since March, AHIP has restructured various of its debt facilities and received covenant waivers on most of its loans. Over the past two months, AHIP has also returned to aggregate occupancy levels above 50% and is once again generating positive cash flows.”