RALEIGH — With wages not keeping pace with the cost of living, investment companies like REALM and Vivo Investment Group are turning to more innovative solutions to help people cut costs on housing. The two have partnered to convert three Extended Stay Americas — one in Raleigh and two in Durham — into cost-effective apartments.

California-based Vivo Investment Group is currently converting the former Radisson Hotel and Holiday Inn into a two-tower, 708-unit multifamily complex with 30,000 square feet of ground level retail space. The apartments, which will range from 250 to 900 square feet, are expected to rent for $1,000 to $1,800 a month – about 10 to 20 percent cheaper than other units downtown and well below rental rates in Harbor East, Canton and Federal Hill, said Ruocco, Senior Vice President and Principal with MacKenzie Commercial Real Estate Services.

A company with a mission of creating housing it says working people can afford is overhauling an old Port Royal hotel on Ribaut Road into 145 new studio apartments that will rent for $1,000 a month.

El Segundo, California-based Vivo Living, the developer, is a private real estate investment and property management company that specializes in recycling “tired hotels” into apartments with pricing it says is “attainable,” with the goal of solving the nation’s housing crisis.

Before the coronavirus disrupted the hotel industry, the sector was already declining. A CBRE report showed that the industry had the lowest growth in revenue in 2019 since recovering from the 2009 industry recession. The pandemic exacerbated the situation, turning many already-failing hotels into ghost towns.

As lockdowns and travel bans raged on, many hotel owners were left with the same question: What do you do with an empty hotel?

Vivo Living offers studio apartment space in converted New Braunfels hotel

It’s a relatively new concept in the housing market.

And the chief executive officer of the California-based investment group specializing in recycling underutilized hotels and motels into studio apartment complexes calls the concept a “re-envisioning.”

Featured by CBS affiliate on 21 April 2022.

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — A California developer has acquired a downtown complex with two former hotel towers and plans to convert the buildings into housing.

Vivo Living, which specializes in redeveloping old hotels, purchased the complex in the 100 block of W. Fayette St., including more than 700 units. The towers most recently were home to the Radisson Hotel Baltimore Downtown-Inner Harbor and the Holiday Inn Baltimore-Inner Harbor.

Featured in NBC Affiliate on 23 May 2022.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A California-based real estate firm is seeking solutions to the affordable housing crisis in Charlotte by turning a hotel into apartments.

Vivo Living announced it will transform a hotel on North Tryon Street into an apartment building with rent that's up to 20% below market value. Vivo currently owns 19 "recycled" hotels across the U.S., including three in North Carolina.

Featured in GlobeSt on 19 April 2022.

BALTIMORE, MD – Private real estate investment and management company Vivo Investment Group has acquired the dual-branded Holiday Inn and Radisson Hotel complex in downtown Baltimore, MD. The firm plans to convert the two-tower, high-rise property into a multifamily community to meet housing demand within the area.

Featured in WilmingtonBiz on 17 December 2021.

A California-based firm paid $11 million this week for 4903 Market St. in Wilmington, a property that includes nearly 8 acres and two motels. The buyer, Vivo Investment Group, plans to turn all of the motel rooms into more than 230 efficiency apartments. Currently, the Budgetel Inn and Motel 6 at 4903 Market St. are in use as motels and share a lobby.

Featured in The Herald-Zeitung on 19 November 2021.

Old hotels getting new life as apartments in New Braunfels.

Featured in The LA Business Journal on 8 November 2021.

Vivo Expands to Torrance With Recent Hotel Acquisition.

Featured in the Wall Street Journal on 22 December 2020.

Developers are converting closed hotels and motels into housing, aiming to offer affordable units in hot markets with high rents.

Featured in Yahoo Finance on 30 December 2020.

‘It’s value housing; reasonable housing’: Vivo Living’s President on converting hotels into apartments.

Featured in LinkedIn News on 30 December 2020.

We saw some U.S. hotels being converted into office space, and now we're seeing another use for them: housing. Real estate developers are scooping up empty hotels and turning them into affordable apartments.

Featured in the Connected Real Estate Magazine on 7 October 2021.

The hospitality sector’s downturn has inspired companies and commercial real estate owners to find alternative uses for hotel properties. California-based Vivo Living is one example. The company transforms hotels into multi-family properties and recently announced it opened its 10th “boutique efficiency apartment” complex, GlobeSt reports.