Atlanta – Hodges Ward Elliott

William Hodges

William M. Hodges is Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder of Hodges Ward Elliott. Bill has been involved in all phases of the firm’s development since its founding in 1975. Hodges Ward Elliott is a fully integrated real estate brokerage and advisory firm historically focused on the hospitality industry, now expanding into all segments of commercial real estate.
Bill has spoken or appeared on panels at the New York University Hotel Investors Conference, Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS), and REIT Finance Conference. He has also been an Entrepreneurial Studies guest lecturer in the Emory University MBA program.
Bill holds a BA degree from LaGrange College, Georgia where he has served as a member of the LaGrange College Board of Trustees for over 21 years (1998-2014, 2015–current) and Chairman of the Board of Trustees for seven years (2007– 2014). In May 2014, Mr. Hodges received an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities.

Pete Dannemiller

Pete Dannemiller is a Managing Director in the Hospitality Investment Advisory practice at Hodges Ward Elliott. Since joining HWE in 1996, Mr. Dannemiller has become one of the leading producers within the firm and the hotel investment sales and financing industry. Dannemiller has teamed with Partner Mark Elliott to close sales and financing transactions totaling over $50 billion in volume during his tenure with the firm, including over $5 billion in debt placement.
Mr. Dannemiller is a frequent speaker at industry events, including the Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS), the Atlanta Hotel Investment Conference, the UNC Real Estate Conference, Hotel Asset Manger’s Association (HAMA) Conference, The Lodging Conference, the Midwest Lodging Investment Summit, Meet the Money, and NYU’s International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference and has been quoted in Hotel Business, Real Estate Forum and Lodging Hospitality magazines as a hospitality brokerage expert.
Mr. Dannemiller holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MBA from Emory University.

Clint Hodges

Clint Hodges is a Managing Director in the Hospitality Investment Advisory practice at Hodges Ward Elliott. In his current role, Clint leads HWE’s select service team. In the last five years, HWE has transacted nearly $4 billion in the select service space including record pricing in markets such as New Orleans, Dallas and Atlanta.
Clint is a frequent speaker at industry events, including the Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS), The Lodging Conference in Phoenix, Arizona and the NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference.
Clint is a graduate of Mercer University.

Todd Ratliff

Todd Ratliff is a Managing Director in the Hospitality Investment Advisory practice at Hodges Ward Elliott. He specializes in institutional-grade hotel and resort property transactions throughout North America, Latin America, and the Caribbean, including investment advisory, debt, and equity placements.
Mr. Ratliff joined the firm in 2003. Representative transactions to date include the Mandarin Oriental Atlanta Buckhead, Chateau Elan Winery & Resort, The Hotel at Avalon (capitalization), The Kimpton Brice Savannah, Residence Inn Dana Point, Hilton Garden Inn Washington D.C. West End, Westin Atlanta Perimeter, and the Embassy Suites New Orleans Convention Center. Prior to HWE, he was a principal in an Atlanta-based commercial real estate information company.
Mr. Ratliff has spoken at numerous hospitality events and conferences, including the NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference and The Lodging Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. He earned a B.A. in Economics from Clemson University with international studies in Salamanca, Spain. Mr. Ratliff currently serves on the boards of Wesleyan School and The James 1:27 Foundation and is an active volunteer at Buckhead Church.

Jeff Berkman

Jeff Berkman is a Director in the Hospitality Investment Advisory practice at Hodges Ward Elliott. He specializes in institutional-grade hotel and resort property transactions throughout the country. In the past 13 years, Jeff has been involved in more than $30 billion in hotel transactions including the recent sales of 1 Hotel South Beach, PGA National Resort and the Four Seasons Las Colinas.
Jeff joined the firm in 2007. Prior to HWE, he was a senior underwriter for the capital markets group at CWCapital. In two years at CW, Jeff was lead underwriter on over $500 million in fixed and floating rate loans. Before starting with CWCapital, Jeff was an underwriter at Mortgageramp, a division of GMAC Commercial Mortgage. In three years at Mortgageramp, he underwrote several hundred million dollars’ worth of fixed-rate conduit loans on behalf of GMAC, Lehman Brothers, Citigroup, and others.
Jeff is a graduate of Tulane University.

Scott Harrell

Scott Harrell is a Director in the Hospitality Investment Advisory practice at Hodges Ward Elliott. He specializes in institutional-grade hotel and resort property transactions throughout the U.S. Since joining the firm in May 2016, he has been involved in more than $2 billion of total investment sales.
Prior to HWE, Mr. Harrell spent more than six years on the acquisitions team at TPG Hotels & Resorts, sourcing, underwriting and closing hotel transactions collectively valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Prior to this, he worked for three years at CWCapital as a senior underwriter for the company’s CMBS conduit financing platform.
Mr. Harrell graduated from Florida State University with a B.S. in Finance and Marketing.

Bhavesh (B.J.) Patel

B.J. Patel is a Director in the Hospitality Investment Advisory practice at Hodges Ward Elliott. With over fifteen years of experience in hospitality and coming from a family hotel ownership background, Patel joined HWE in March 2019 after serving as a Senior Managing Director with a national firm’s lodging capital markets group in Atlanta for a decade where he focused on hotel investment sales.
Throughout his career, he has been involved in half a billion dollars in transactions, including deals such as a Courtyard in downtown Columbia, SC, the WNW portfolio of 8 hotels, and the B Hotel Savannah, GA (former Country Inn & Suites). Earlier in his career, Patel also served as a Development Manager with NYLO Hotels and as an Associate for Acquisitions and Asset Management at The Procaccianti Group.
Mr. Patel graduated from the Cornell Hotel School with a Masters of Management in Hospitality and completed undergraduate degrees in finance and business management at Clemson University.

John Sonnier

John Sonnier is a Director in the Hospitality Investment Advisory practice at Hodges Ward Elliott. John specializes in institutional-grade hotel and resort property transactions, including select-service portfolios, throughout North America.
John joined the firm in May 1999. Prior to HWE, John spent almost seven years as Vice President Development for Interstate Hotels and Resorts in Pittsburgh, PA. Prior to that, John also held development and consulting positions at Red Lion Hotels, Kenneth Leventhal & Company, Prism Hotels and Pannell Kerr Forster in Dallas, TX where he started the Management Advisory Services practice in 1983.
John has been a frequent panelist and moderator at industry events, including the Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS) and The Lodging Conference. John earned a B.A. in Hotel and Restaurant Management at the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of Houston.

Nate Ries

Nate Ries is a Senior Vice President in the Hospitality Investment Advisory practice at Hodges Ward Elliott. He specializes in hotel and resort transactions throughout North America, including investment advisory and equity placements. Nate is responsible for all aspects of deal execution, marketing strategy, and financial underwriting.
Since joining the firm in 2012, Nate has been directly involved in the sale or financing of approximately 100 hotels and resorts, totaling $3 billion in transaction value. Prior to HWE, Nate worked as an analyst for Revenue Analytics, a consulting firm specializing in price optimization and revenue management for Fortune 500 companies.
Nate graduated with a BS in Economics from Duke University and received an MBA with a concentration in real estate and finance from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School.

Michael Tormey

Michael Tormey is a Senior Vice President in the Hospitality Investment Advisory practice at Hodges Ward Elliott. He specializes in institutional-grade full-service and select-service hotel and resort property transactions, and his primary responsibilities include financial analysis and underwriting, transaction management, and the preparation of offering memoranda and pitch materials.
Michael joined the firm in July 2013. Prior to HWE, he served as an acquisitions intern for Dolce Hotels and Resorts, where he was responsible for market research and feasibility analysis.
He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Hotel Administration, as well as a Minor in Real Estate, from Cornell University. Michael remains closely connected to the school as a co-leader of HWE’s analyst and internship program.