JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group has announced the strategic hire of Gareth Closter. “Gareth’s appointment is one of the first steps in our plan to establish a specialist national mid-markets and management rights platform,” said Mike Batchelor, CEO Asia Pacific, JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group.

Gareth joins JLL as Senior Vice President after almost five years at ResortBrokers in Brisbane where he specialised in management rights sales. Prior to that, over a 12-year period he held senior brokerage roles at Colliers and Chesterton International specialising in the sale of office buildings, retail complexes, development sites and hotels.

“Gareth’s appointment is one of the first steps in our plan to establish a specialist national mid-markets and management rights platform. This is a natural progression from the market-leading success of our hotel capital markets and pubs businesses, further entrenching JLL as the country’s only full spectrum hotels & hospitality real estate advisory group. Excitingly, this is the first of several new appointments we’ll be making over the next month,” said Mike Batchelor, CEO Asia Pacific, JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group.

“The mid-markets sector of the Australian hotel investment market remains incredibly active and in recent years we’ve seen a growing level of institutionalisation in the space, particularly amongst management rights, regional motels and caravan parks. There is clearly an unmet requirement for a more institutional service offering to match the growth and evolution of the sector. Being part of an Asia Pacific Group with dedicated offices in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth together with a suite of specialists spanning valuation & advisory, asset management, debt advisory and sales, we feel we are uniquely placed to assist owners, investors and operators,” said Peter Harper, Managing Director & Head of Investment Sales, JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group.

Gareth Closter said, “It is extremely exciting to join JLL Hotels & Hospitality. Due to the current global travel restrictions, many Australians have rediscovered Queensland, and this will ensure extremely strong demand fundamentals from domestic tourists over the medium term.  Beyond this, the recent announcement of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games has the sector poised for a decade or more of growth and opportunity. In many ways there couldn’t be a better time to launch the mid-markets team.”