Starting immediately, the company is diving full-force into the management arena and is planning on doubling its managed room count to 6,000 rooms in three years and up to as much as 10,000 rooms in five years by dipping its way into a series of long-term contracts with hotels such as the Timber Ridge Lodge & Waterpark, a hotel with an indoor waterslide-themed attraction. Marcus is also planning to expand through the purchase of other management companies, but has yet to announce a potential take-over target.

Though the company, a division of the Marcus Corporation (NYSE: MCS), has been slowly amassing third-party contracts since 1993, only now does it feel the state of the hospitality industry warrants a decision to move ahead more aggressively by adding to its current room count of about 3,000 managed rooms.

If Marcus is successful, the company will be a top-20 management company in terms of number of rooms managed.

“We think it’s an opportune time to do that for a variety of reasons,” said Michael Hool, CPA, Director of Development for Marcus Hotels and Resorts, referring to its new emphasis on managing rather than owning specific properties. Hool spoke with Hotel Interactive during the NYU Investment Conference here.

“When the economy has a downturn and properties start to change hands, it is an opportune time for managers to change too,” he said.

The company has already started its new stance with the acquisition of two hotels, the above-mentioned 225-suite Timber Ridge Lodge & Waterpark located at the Grand Geneva Resort and Spa in Lake Geneva, WI, and the 171-room Hilton Garden Inn Houston NW/Chateau in Texas.

By creating hotels with such intriguing amenities as an indoor water slide park, Marcus believes it will be able to prop-up occupancy levels at properties such as the Wisconsin hotel during the coldest times of year when people typically stay at home. So far, the hotel has booked an additional 200 room nights solely by selling room packages that included admission to the waterpark for the whole family.

Marcus has spent $150 million in property renovations for properties that they own or manage during the past three years for property development and renovations.

Additionally, Hool said the company is in the market to scoop-up a competitor or two in the management company niche in order to further propel its growth.

“We could possibly look to acquire other management companies because there is a lot of economies of scale going that way and we see the continuation of these [types of] mergers. What we bring to the table is not just Marcus Hotels and Resorts, but the power of purchasing and a lot of other resources. This is a definite change in our approach to growth, but it enables us to grow at a quicker speed,” said Hool.

When Marcus does enter into a new agreement to run a hotel, Hool explained the company isn’t interested in any short-term deals, but in projects that allow it to get a hotel up to speed and enjoy a piece of the profits for years to come.

Hool said that many companies enter into agreements that last only three to five years, not enough time to really propel the bottom line of the management company as a whole because it takes time to ramp-up a property after a new management team is in place.

“We like to see longer management contracts and we only know one way to operate; we don’t do short-term management contracts. I like to see it longer because when we operate that way, we can see some of the fruits with our rewards,” Hool said.

Headquartered in Milwaukee, The Marcus Corporation currently operates or franchises more than 10,000 rooms at its 183 limited-service Baymont Inns & Suites, seven Woodfield Suites and four hotels a resort in Wisconsin. For more information visit the company's website at www.marcuscorp.com.