AUSTIN, TEXAS — Carey Watermark Investors Inc. has acquired Hyatt Place Austin Downtown, a 296-room upscale select-service hotel, for $87 million. The acquisition was financed with $56.5 million of debt and includes $3.9 million of acquisition-related costs and minor capital improvements.
Hyatt Place Austin Downtown is located in the heart of Austin. Completed in 2013, the hotel is one block from the Austin Convention Center at 211 E. 3rd St., two blocks from the Sixth Street entertainment district, one-half mile from the State Capitol building and one mile from the University of Texas campus. Major companies in the area include Dell, Apple, AMD, Whole Foods and Silicon Labs. The hotel is close to more than 50 restaurants and the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
Amenities at the 17-story hotel include free Wi-Fi, 1,800 square feet of high-tech meeting and function space, an indoor pool, a StayFit at Hyatt fitness center and free public computers with remote printing. The hotel also features a coffee-to-cocktails bar and offers a complimentary kitchen skillet breakfast.
“The acquisition of the Hyatt Place Austin Downtown represented an opportunity to invest in a newly built, high-quality, select-service property in one of the strongest domestic hotel markets,” says Michael Medzigian, CEO of Carey Watermark Investors. “As the first newly built Hyatt-branded hotel in downtown Austin in 30 years, we believe the property is well positioned to capture market share.”
Austin is one of the top performing hotel markets in the United States, according to Carey Watermark Investors. Forbes magazine ranked Austin as the fastest growing city in America for the third consecutive year in 2013. The city benefits from many corporate and leisure hotel demand generators, including one of the nation's largest universities with more than 54,000 undergraduate students, a large government presence, plus booming technology, medical, media and biotechnology sectors.
Additionally, Austin hosts numerous festivals and leisure events, including SXSW and Austin City Limits and is home to the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix.
New York-based Carey Watermark Investors is a non-traded real estate investment trust focused on investing in lodging and lodging-related properties. Affiliates of W. P. Carey Inc. and Watermark Capital Partners advise CWI and manage its overall portfolio.
— Danielle Everson