- A&R GROUP
January 24, 2023
Meet Our President of Development
Zach Hoyt got his start in commercial development at a young age. Growing up along the Gulf Coast in a family that has been a part of the Real Estate industry for over 30 years, created a passion for development. He first got his start in the hospitality industry at the age of 19 when he was a front desk agent at a well-known resort in Orange Beach, Alabama. From there, he quickly rose in the ranks to assume the prominent role of Director of Sales and Marketing. Zach spent three years in this role when he was introduced to Ken and Angela Patel. “At that point, I was in school for Finance and taking online classes. The A&R Group didn’t have a fully structured development strategic business unit and Ken took a chance on me after realizing my passion for development in the hospitality industry. He gave me a shot,” says Zach.
Zach joined Ken as an analyst and the two of them “boot-strapped” the development team. Over the last 5-years, they have underwritten north of half a billion dollars in deals and have acquired, liquidated, and refinanced, over $300 million in “deal value”. Working in several areas of the hospitality industry has caused him to work on many projects but, if he had to single out a project outside of real estate transactions, he would say he is most proud of what A&R has accomplished internally as a company. Zach has helped to build policies, procedures, and guidelines that have helped A&R become the company it is today. “I have always had a keen sense of dissecting management issues and seeing how the decisions we make today will ultimately affect us down the road,” Zach mentions.
His journey has not been without inspiration. There are a handful of people that, without them, he wouldn’t sit in his current position or even be the man that he is today. “I can take bits and pieces of advice from many people, but the one person that I would say inspires me the most is Ken. As cliché as it sounds, outside of my family, I would ultimately land on him. Ken doesn’t have a selfish bone in his body. He has an amazing “rags to riches” story and has built the empire he has today from the ground up. I watched him sacrifice family time and self wants. Through the pandemic and growing pains, his leadership and his calmness has inspired me and pushed me to be better at my job and better as a person,” declares Zach. This inspiration pushes Zach daily.
When asked if he could give one piece of advice to someone new to the development industry, he responded with five words; work hard and stay patient. “Everything is constantly evolving in our line of business. Our society often lacks attention, patience, and the ability to stay loyal to something. I would encourage them to trust the process and know that they will learn more during the process than they will on their own,” says Zach. In the next 5 years, he sees A&R Development as being one of the prominent development firms in the hospitality industry and given the comprehensive strategic plans that have been created for all strategic business units, when combined with the dedicated and professional staff at A&R, we have nothing but success ahead of us!
