HOTEL INDUSTRY FURNISHINGS PROVIDER HAS RELIABLE PARTNER:

Carver & Associates Discovers Symbiotic Relationship

BY VICTOR RIVERO

IN HIS MORE THAN 30-YEAR career, twenty-one of which he’s spent as company owner, Larry Carver has seen it all. As President of Carver & Associates, an equipment and furnishings provider for hotels and motels, he’s recently discovered the advantages of non-traditional financing from a unique perspective, having worked in the industry side by side with what he has found to be a unique finance company.

“We've had a good relationship with GCR Capital,” says Larry “We’ve been working with them for over two and a half years. I didn’t realize it had been that long. John Grant, is fun to work with. It’s good business.”

The advantages of working with GCR Capital are numerous, explains Larry, but “number one, we help each other out. If I have a client that is having trouble paying, I’ve introduced them to John. He put together a lease for them so they could afford to go ahead and finish the jobs that they started. We got paid, they got their equipment and everybody’s happy.”

In other cases, John would get a call from a potential customer and introduce them to Carver & Associates, says Larry, “and we’d be able to do some work for them.” It’s a relationship that has been, according to Larry, “mutually beneficial.”

PROVIDING FOR HOTEL OWNERS

Carver & Associates buys furnishings, fixtures and equipment for hotels. “We work for the owners of hotels,” says Larry. “If they’re building a new one, or want to renovate their old hotel, then we provide design services, purchase everything that goes into the hotel and provide it to them.”

Most of the work that they’ve been doing for GCR Capital is in Carver & Associates’ turnkey division. They have two divisions, one specializing in big hotels where they work on a fee basis. The other works with smaller properties: Hampton Inns, Holiday Inn - Express Inns, etc., where they do complete turnkey jobs.

“We’ll buy the products, deliver it, do all the design and then just hand them the key when it’s done,” says Larry. “Those are the types of customers where John has been helpful to us.” Carver & Associates has done dozens of hotels with GCR Capital in the last couple of years and have been very pleased with the relationship. When they come to the table with GCR Capital, they know what to expect.

WORKING WITH A TRUSTED PARTNER

From his side of the table, explains Larry, his company doesn’t have to worry about getting paid. “That’s been a very nice advantage. We know that if GCR Capital is providing the financing, then the money is good. That’s the best part of the relationship. Hopefully, we’ve been helpful to John in that we’ve been able to take care of some of his customers, getting them the materials that they need.”
The biggest area where GCR has “come to the rescue” according to Larry, is when Carver & Associates has had a client that was building or renovating a hotel and that client ran out of money and couldn’t finish the job.

“Meanwhile,” says Larry, “we’re out there purchasing products to send to them, and they just couldn’t pay us. John was able to come in and put them on a lease where they could afford it. Then he of course would pay us for the products, the merchandise that we sold to them.

“Usually, it’s a situation where they [hotel owners] start out and have financing in the bank, so we agree to extend them credit. But then the contractor gets behind, or they have a dispute with the contractor, construction company or something, and that soaks up their money. Then we’re in the lurch. That’s when John comes to the rescue,” Larry says.

Such situations are always a hazard when you do the kind of work Carver & Associates does, “because we’re the last ones in,” says Larry. The owner gains financing for his property, then he has to pay the architect to design the building and the general contractor to build it. “The last thing to go in is the equipment and furniture. That’s what we provide, so if there are any shortcomings, they come at the end, and we’re the ones who usually get hit with it,” he says.

“It doesn’t happen all the time or we wouldn’t be in business”, says Larry, “But when it does happen, it’s nice to have GCR Capital there so that we can refer them and then, because it’s all new merchandise and most of it hadn’t been delivered yet, they can arrange a lease. That allows the owner to finish his property,” he says.

“You know, there are some of these other guys that provide leasing and financing. But they do all sorts of properties. John does, too, but he’s been very good in the hospitality industry which is the only industry we work in. It’s a symbiotic relationship, really,” says Larry.

While Carver & Associates contracts with the hotel owner, they don’t actually contract with GCR Capital, “GCR Capital simply provides the financing. We’re not their customer and they’re not ours, but they provide a good service to their clients and then also vice versa, to our clients. We’re able to help some of their clients open their properties.”

From Larry’s perspective as an industry veteran, he observes, “After 9/11, our industry took a huge hit. The only segment of our industry that held up during the last two years, really, was small properties. The roadside hotel – 80, 100, 120 rooms – they kept right on building. The bigger hotels: casino, airport and convention hotels – they just died. The limited-service segment of the industry is
a customer that GCR Capital serves especially well. That really helped us stay alive during the last two years. In that respect, it’s really nice to have GCR Capital out there.”

FUTURE: BUSINESS BEGINNING TO BOOM

And what else is nice, according to Larry, is that business is getting better all the time. “By leaps and bounds” is how he describes it. “All the other segments are coming back; bigger hotels are coming back and the industry is growing like crazy right now. There’s a lot of pent up demand,” he says.

“From our standpoint, we depend on capital expenditures from the hospitality industry and nobody’s spent anything on their hotels – they haven’t done any renovations for two years since 9/11. But now, people are starting to travel again, they’re starting to get revenue, and they’re starting to spend money again,” he says. And what does this industry veteran think about the near future? The rest
of this year, and 2005 as well, “are going to be good years.”




CONTACT INFO:
Larry Carver
President
Carver & Associates
7012 Best Friend Road, Suite 200
Atlanta, GA 30340
Phone: 770-446-2677
Fax: 404-365-5288
larry.carver@mindspring.com
www.carverassoc.com