The 108-year-old building was redeveloped into a boutique hotel in 2015. (Mike Platania photo)
A piece of Quirk Hotel has been divvied out to a firm from the Big Apple.
Mercer Street Partners recently bought a minority ownership stake in the 73-room boutique hotel at 201 W. Broad St.
The deal, completed last fall, gives New York-based Mercer Street a stake in both the hotel’s business and its real estate. The amount invested was not disclosed.
Katie and Ted Ukrop, who opened Quirk in Monroe Ward in 2015, remain the hotel’s majority owners.
Since arriving in Richmond in 2017, Mercer Street has primarily sought multifamily properties with deals in Northside, Church Hill and Petersburg. Managing partner Joe LeVine said his firm first became acquainted with the Ukrops in 2019 when they teamed up on an investment into Common House, a social club with a restaurant and co-working space a block from Quirk at 305 W. Broad St.
Joe LeVine
But before becoming business partners with the Ukrops, LeVine said he was already familiar with Quirk, as it was the only hotel he’d stay at when in town from New York.
“(Quirk) has an aesthetic and sensibility that appealed to us as people visiting the market. In particular, the service and how it felt,” LeVine said.
As part of the deal, Mercer Street is taking over as the asset manager of the hotel, with duties such as approving budgets, reviewing financials and assembling quarterly reports. Retro Hospitality, a local hotel management company, will continue to run the day-to-day operations of the hotel as it has since 2022.
Ted Ukrop said Mercer Street has been the asset manager of Common House and that experience helped lead Quirk to bring the firm on board.
“It’s nice to have somebody with a strong hospitality background serving as an asset manager at the Quirk,” Ukrop said.
The investment was only for the Richmond location; Mercer Street does not have a stake in the Charlottesville Quirk. LeVine added there are no changes planned for the general operations of Quirk.
“Our goal is to overall help maintain and raise the Quirk Richmond,” LeVine said. “We’re going to step in as asset manager and look for overall improvements of the property, but that’s really from a long-term strategy standpoint.”
Ted and Katie Ukrop
No outside investors have been pursued for the Charlottesville Quirk, which opened in 2020, but Ukrop said the possibility hasn’t been ruled out for the future.
Mercer Street’s portfolio spans the entire East Coast and includes office and multifamily properties. Quirk is one of multiple hospitality plays Mercer Street has made in recent months. It recently bought the 111-room Wylder Windham resort in upstate New York and a 388-room Hilton hotel in Appleton, Wisconsin.
Before co-founding Mercer Street in 2016, LeVine said he spent a decade overseeing over $1 billion in hotel assets throughout the U.S. and Japan.
“(Hotels are) not a foreign asset or operating business to us,” he said.
Around the same time it invested in Quirk, Mercer Street also bought a two-story office building nearby at 316 W. Broad St. LeVine said the company is working toward leasing out the building while “also looking at potential designs for a future redevelopment.”
On the western end of Quirk’s block is the former Mr. Able Propane property, on which the Ukrops and Bank Street Advisors are planning an eight-story, 87-unit apartment building.
The project has been in planning since 2022 and Ukrop said the developers are hoping to begin work on it this year, though rising interest rates and construction costs have slowed it down.
“It’s been approved and ready to go,” Ukrop said. “It’s just a matter of waiting until the financing works.”
The 108-year-old building was redeveloped into a boutique hotel in 2015. (Mike Platania photo)
A piece of Quirk Hotel has been divvied out to a firm from the Big Apple.
Mercer Street Partners recently bought a minority ownership stake in the 73-room boutique hotel at 201 W. Broad St.
The deal, completed last fall, gives New York-based Mercer Street a stake in both the hotel’s business and its real estate. The amount invested was not disclosed.
Katie and Ted Ukrop, who opened Quirk in Monroe Ward in 2015, remain the hotel’s majority owners.
Since arriving in Richmond in 2017, Mercer Street has primarily sought multifamily properties with deals in Northside, Church Hill and Petersburg. Managing partner Joe LeVine said his firm first became acquainted with the Ukrops in 2019 when they teamed up on an investment into Common House, a social club with a restaurant and co-working space a block from Quirk at 305 W. Broad St.
Joe LeVine
But before becoming business partners with the Ukrops, LeVine said he was already familiar with Quirk, as it was the only hotel he’d stay at when in town from New York.
“(Quirk) has an aesthetic and sensibility that appealed to us as people visiting the market. In particular, the service and how it felt,” LeVine said.
As part of the deal, Mercer Street is taking over as the asset manager of the hotel, with duties such as approving budgets, reviewing financials and assembling quarterly reports. Retro Hospitality, a local hotel management company, will continue to run the day-to-day operations of the hotel as it has since 2022.
Ted Ukrop said Mercer Street has been the asset manager of Common House and that experience helped lead Quirk to bring the firm on board.
“It’s nice to have somebody with a strong hospitality background serving as an asset manager at the Quirk,” Ukrop said.
The investment was only for the Richmond location; Mercer Street does not have a stake in the Charlottesville Quirk. LeVine added there are no changes planned for the general operations of Quirk.
“Our goal is to overall help maintain and raise the Quirk Richmond,” LeVine said. “We’re going to step in as asset manager and look for overall improvements of the property, but that’s really from a long-term strategy standpoint.”
Ted and Katie Ukrop
No outside investors have been pursued for the Charlottesville Quirk, which opened in 2020, but Ukrop said the possibility hasn’t been ruled out for the future.
Mercer Street’s portfolio spans the entire East Coast and includes office and multifamily properties. Quirk is one of multiple hospitality plays Mercer Street has made in recent months. It recently bought the 111-room Wylder Windham resort in upstate New York and a 388-room Hilton hotel in Appleton, Wisconsin.
Before co-founding Mercer Street in 2016, LeVine said he spent a decade overseeing over $1 billion in hotel assets throughout the U.S. and Japan.
“(Hotels are) not a foreign asset or operating business to us,” he said.
Around the same time it invested in Quirk, Mercer Street also bought a two-story office building nearby at 316 W. Broad St. LeVine said the company is working toward leasing out the building while “also looking at potential designs for a future redevelopment.”
On the western end of Quirk’s block is the former Mr. Able Propane property, on which the Ukrops and Bank Street Advisors are planning an eight-story, 87-unit apartment building.
The project has been in planning since 2022 and Ukrop said the developers are hoping to begin work on it this year, though rising interest rates and construction costs have slowed it down.
“It’s been approved and ready to go,” Ukrop said. “It’s just a matter of waiting until the financing works.”
Congratulations, Ted and Katie.
It looks to me like the old Mr Able/LP Gas site redevelopment financing is working by selling off assets. I guess the Common House owner too are looking to branch out in their downtown space ownership too so win win it appears.