DALLAS — Ashford Hospitality Trust (NYSE: AHT) has closed a $427 million refinancing of 17 properties within its hotel portfolio. The hotels in the portfolio are situated throughout the West, Midwest and South. The new loan is expected to result in annual interest savings of about $9.8 million.
Properties included in the portfolio are
— Courtyard Alpharetta, Georgia
— Courtyard Bloomington, Indiana
— Courtyard Crystal City, Virginia
— Courtyard Foothill Ranch, California
— Embassy Suites Austin, Texas
— Embassy Suites Dallas, Texas
— Embassy Suites Houston, Texas
— Embassy Suites Las Vegas, Nevada
— Embassy Suites Palm Beach, Florida
— Hampton Inn Evansville, Indiana
— Hilton Garden Inn Jacksonville, Florida
— Hilton Nassau Bay, Texas
— Hilton St. Petersburg, Florida
— Residence Inn Evansville, Indiana
— Residence Inn Falls Church, Virginia
— Residence Inn San Diego, California and
— Sheraton Indianapolis, Indiana
The new mortgage loan has a two-year initial term and five, one-year extension options. The loan is interest-only features a floating interest rate of LIBOR plus 3 percent. The previous mortgage loan that was refinanced was the BAML 17 Pool loan with a final maturity date in December 2021.
“The early execution of this refinancing provided us with an attractive opportunity to address a future maturity, as well as achieve substantial savings in annual interest payments,” says Douglas Kessler, president and CEO of Ashford Hospitality Trust. “When combined with our other refinancings and preferred redemptions completed this year, we expect to realize annual savings of approximately $13.7 million.”
The transaction comes on the heels of another refinancing. Ashford completed a $95 million refinancing for the Hilton Boston Back Bay in Boston on Monday, Oct. 30. The previous loan was the only 2018 maturity left for the REIT, according to Kessler. The new financing is estimated to result in annual interest and principal payments savings of about $2.8 million.
Dallas-based Ashford Hospitality Trust is a REIT focused on investing opportunistically in upper upscale, full-service hotels. Ashford’s stock closed at $7.03 per share on Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2017, up from $5.56 per share just one year ago.
— Nellie Day