Dan Daniele has been named president of Corporex Select Service Hotels. The former president of Baymont Franchises, Daniele joined Covington, KY-based Corporex as senior vice president of development in spring 2005, following the sale of the Baymont brand to La Quinta. His goal: to develop a portfolio of select-service properties that is geographically diverse and multi-branded.

Daniele is a busy man. That's the way he likes it.

“We put a business plan together in ‘05 to develop roughly a 30-plus hotel portfolio,” Daniele says from his office overlooking downtown Cincinnati. Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt and Starwood are the targets, their respective vehicles Courtyard, SpringHill Suites and Residence Inn; Hampton Inn & Suites, Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites; Hyatt Place and Hyatt Summerfield Suites; aloft and Element.

The select-service focus is coming clearer three years after the Corporex Companies spun off their Eagle Hospitality Properties, which focused on more upscale properties. When the full-service hotels were spun off into another firm, Corporex agreed to not pursue that segment, instead focusing on select-service hotels in markets with high barriers to entry and good business generators. Corporex is a diversified real estate investment company.

The first project Daniele shepherded involved conversion of a Holiday Inn to a Courtyard, and Corporex just received a temporary certificate of occupancy for a Hampton Inn & Suites. Both properties are in northern California. In June, Corporex opened a Residence Inn in a St. Louis suburb. It aims to open a Hilton Garden Inn in Reno by year's end, Daniele says.

In addition, Starwood has selected Corporex to develop one of its aloft hotels, and Daniele's team is spearheading the side-by-side construction of a Residence Inn and a Hilton Garden Inn at the Gulfport Biloxi (MS) Airport.