Report: Company’s Scion brand signs letter of intent with potential Nashville owner

Trump Hotels has signed a letter of intent with a potential owner of a Nashville location for its new Scion hotel brand, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Trump Hotels CEO Eric Danziger said the company has signed deals with 17 potential owners; a Trump Hotels spokesperson later confirmed that Nashville was one of the markets, as are peer cities Austin, Texas, and Cincinnati. The spokesperson would not identify the developers interested in bringing the Scion brand to Nashville or the other markets.

The Trump Organization introduced the Scion brand in October, according to the Wall Street Journal, just as the presidential campaign wound down. The hotels are supposed to be “a slightly less upscale brand that caters to a younger generation of travelers,” the newspaper reported.

Bobby Bowers, senior vice president of operations for Hendersonville-based hotel industry research firm STR, said he anticipates Nashville’s hotel market will continue to grow in 2017 and 2018, but at a slower pace than 2016.

“The Nashville market has been one of the hottest markets in the country as far as development and performance. It’s one of those shining stars of really all the markets you look at,” he said. “What’s going to happen when things are not as good, when the economy slows down? Is there going to be a situation where the city is overbuilt? That’s the big question everybody always asks.”