In conversation with Saxbury’s Andrew Shaw
Andrew Shaw
After more than three decades honing his craft as a development and acquisitions specialist for hotels and serviced apartments, Andrew Shaw reflects on his next chapter as our new development director for special projects.
When it comes to the UK and Ireland hotel sector, there’s little that Andrew Shaw hasn’t bought, developed or advised on over the last 35 years. Previously head of development for InterContinental Hotels Group, Accor and Leonardo Hotels, he has earned a reputation for providing sound, strategic acquisition and development advice. From leases to franchise and management agreements and forward purchase structures, his experience spans every aspect.
As he puts it: “I’ve been in and around hotels all my career. In the simplest terms, I’ve worked from all sides of the table on all angles of the deal.” Having recently joined the team at Saxbury to bolster our development advisory offering, Andrew is well-versed in each step of the process – site acquisition, project evaluation, debt and equity finance. Here, he shares some of his past achievements and future aspirations, as well as his predictions for the sector in the year ahead.
For those who don’t know you, can you tell us about your career highlights to date?
“I spent nine years working for Accor during its pivotal transition from owner and tenant to brand owner, focusing on franchise and management agreements. From there, I moved to IHG into a purer franchising role before my last position at Leonardo Hotels, one of Europe’s biggest hotel owner-operators. During my six years there I was heading up the development arm – so acquiring existing hotels, sourcing and acquiring sites and buildings for new build hotels, working with the construction team to deliver development projects, and securing hotel developments under institutional lease structures. That was probably one of my biggest career moments because of how multifaceted it was.
At this point there isn’t much I haven’t experienced in terms of how to put a deal together, whether that’s from the perspective of the owner, tenant or the franchise side too.”
What led you to team up with Saxbury?
“Working with Saxbury is such an interesting opportunity because it’s development advisory but within a live role where you’re working with someone who wants to buy, build and operate. That’s something developers can forget when it comes to hotels and aparthotels – that it’s a living breathing entity, not a dry investment. It’s essentially a business within a building.
I met Ben [Davis, Saxbury’s real estate director] around six years ago and it became apparent there was shared synergy. After more than three decades in the industry, I needed somewhere to download all the knowledge I’d accumulated, and this made sense.
I’ve always succeeded best in smaller companies because they can be nimbler and more responsive. That also means they can often provide a better service to a client, minus the background noise that comes with working in a bigger environment. Saxbury takes a more hands-on approach, which is exciting.”
As a developer and advisor what will you bring to the table at Saxbury?
“As a team, I don’t think there’s anything within the development sphere that we don’t collectively cover, but hopefully I can help expand that bandwidth further. For me, that comes down to being able to spot a good opportunity and then knowing where the potential pinch points are. That’s particularly important in the current climate.
For context, it’s been a tough development market over the last few years. While the outlook is certainly getting more positive, there are still a lot of developers out there who might have bought a site three, four or five years ago and now need a helping hand to understand what the new normal is. Initially they might have earmarked it for student accommodation or residential use, for example, but now they’ve started to consider hotels and aparthotels, and they aren’t necessarily familiar with that market. That’s where Saxbury, and the bespoke services we offer, can really help.”
For you, what makes Saxbury stand out in the industry?
“One USP is our size. We’re a very small team but a very knowledgeable one with real enthusiasm for the sector. We all know our specific spheres of reference in great depth and can bring that together under one umbrella, whether that’s leasing agreements or specialist funding. When it comes to the latter, I’m looking forward to working with Kristian [Hoy, head of finance] to unwrap that side of things, not least because a lot of developers and owners have been, and probably still are, struggling to raise debt or equity in the current financial environment. It’s important for me to be able to join the dots on that, especially with build costs being so high.”
What are your predictions for the year ahead?
“Essentially, the opportunity is now. Transaction activity bounced back in a big way last year after a terrible 2023, and the development market is easing up too. There’s a more stable inflationary backdrop; interest rates are trending down, albeit slowly, and build costs are beginning to stabilise. Overall, it’s a much more transparent development environment in terms of how much it’s going to cost to build and how much it’s going to cost to raise debt and equity. Ultimately that should mean more activity in the development market.”
What are you most looking forward to in 2025?
“Adding value to Saxbury is a big motivator for me this year, and the guiding force behind this new chapter. I think we have a story to tell and I’m looking forward to elevating our development advisory offering and helping to widen our profile as specialists in the sector.”