John Avanzino.
John Avanzino, 33
Senior Financial Analyst at Debt and Structured Finance at CBRE
John Avanzino has a passion for sourcing institutional capital for hospitality-related transactions, including debt, equity and transactional sales across North America and the Caribbean.
“What I love the most about the hospitality industry are the complexities that come with a daily operating business and the incredible people I’ve met along the way,” said the 33-year-old, who joined CBRE at the end of 2018 after stints on the acquisition and development side at Lowe Enterprises and Moin Development and an internship at Rose Associates. “Take care of the relationships, and the transactions will take care of themselves.”
Since the onset of the pandemic, Avanzino’s five-person team has seen a whirlwind of activity, completing $1 billion in U.S. hospitality financings since 2020. That’s a big sum, especially considering CBRE’s institutional hotels and debt and structured finance teams nationally notched $3.6 billion in U.S. hospitality financings since last year.
One of the firm’s big deals dates back to November 2020. A CBRE sales team sold the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa to Eagle Four Partners and Avanzino’s team handled its $170 million financing. That transaction represented one of the top three largest single-asset financings since the onset of COVID-19, he said, and it was a finalist for the 2021 Americas Lodging Investment Summit Awards.
Year-to-date, the team has scored $680 million in hotel financings. And they have $700 million in the market right now.
“We would not be taking those to market if we didn’t think there was a pool [of bidders] for that,” said Avanzino, who is the only non-lawyer in his family.
Avanzino’s biggest deal to date at CBRE is the $219 million acquisition and renovation financing of a portfolio of four Marriott hotels (in Atlanta, Arizona and California) for Starwood Capital Group. The transaction closed in 2019.—L.E.S.
