SACRAMENTO, CALIF. — Autograph Collection Hotels has added The Citizen hotel in Sacramento to its portfolio. The hotel is situated inside the California Life Insurance Building. It contains the Grange Restaurant and Bar, as well as 9,000 square feet of meeting space. Autograph is part of the Marriott International brand. Its global portfolio consists of 93 hotels worldwide.
Hospitality
ATLANTA — Grove Street Partners has closed financing for and will soon break ground on Renaissance Atlanta Airport Gateway Hotel in Atlanta. The 204-room hotel will be one of three hotels connected to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The other two, a Marriott and SpringHill Suites, were developed by Grove Street Partners in 2010. Marriott International will manage all three hotels, which are located adjacent to the Georgia International Convention Center and the ATL SkyTrain, an elevated train that connects the airport’s passenger terminal to the rental car center. Upon completion in March 2017, the hotel will feature 6,500 square feet of meeting space, a 3,200-square-foot ballroom, restaurant and bar.
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS — Marcus & Millichap has arranged the sale of Aggieland Inn (formerly Ramada), a 167-room hospitality property located in College Station. Chris Gomes of Marcus & Millichap’s Dallas office, along with Allan Miller of the firm’s San Antonio office and Jake Gaddy of the Austin office, marketed the property on behalf of the seller, a limited liability company. Gomes procured the buyer, a private investor. Nick Fluellen and Bard Hoover of Marcus & Millichap’s Dallas office referred the seller to Gomes. Fluellen and Hoover previously represented the seller during the acquisition and disposition of student housing apartment assets. Aggieland Inn is located at 1502 Texas Ave. S., one block from the Texas A&M University campus. Built in 1972, the hotel is situated on roughly four acres. The hotel includes an outdoor swimming pool, a banquet hall and a restaurant and lounge. The buyer is planning a multimillion-dollar renovation before reopening in the first quarter of 2016.
LOS ALTOS, CALIF. — RLJ Lodging Trust has purchased Los Altos Hotel Associates LLC’s interest in the 156-room Residence Inn by Marriott in the Silicon Valley submarket of Los Altos for $70 million. The hotel is located at 4460 El Camino Real. The Residence Inn opened in 2000. It recently underwent a renovation that included upgrades to the public areas and guestrooms. The hotel caters to extended-stay travelers visiting nearby Palo Alto and Stanford University. Major corporate employers in the area include Hewlett Packard, VMware, SAP, Google, Intuit, Stanford University and Hospital and LinkedIn. Scott Griemsmann of Paramount Lodging Advisors represented the seller in this transaction.
SPRINGFIELD, OHIO — Waramaug LS Hotels LLC has acquired the Courtyard Springfield Downtown in Springfield for an undisclosed price. Springfield is located approximately 26 miles northeast of Dayton. The six-story, 120-room hotel property was recently renovated and features 6,500 square feet of meeting space. It also includes a 5,000-square-foot ballroom, an indoor heated pool, a business center, a fitness center and an on-site restaurant, Mela Urban Bistro. A new outdoor bar and patio seating area is under construction.
HOUSTON — MetroNational, a Houston-based real estate investment, development and management company, has partnered with Z Resorts to construct Hotel ZaZa Memorial City at the intersection of I-10 and Bunker Hill Road in Houston. Hotel ZaZa Memorial City is the brand’s second Houston location. Kirksey Architecture will oversee the design and Anslow Bryant Construction is the general contractor of the property, which is slated to open in summer 2017. Hotel ZaZa Memorial City will include 159 guest rooms, along with 10,000 square feet of event and meeting spaces. Amenities will include a pool with bar and cabanas, a restaurant and lounge. MetroNational and Z Resorts are dedicating four levels of the 17-story hotel to 130 apartment units, with guests having access to all ZaZa amenities. Hotel ZaZa Memorial City will be located at 9787 Katy Freeway and will be the third property opening for the brand in 2017, joining Hotel ZaZa Austin in downtown Austin and Hotel ZaZa Wade Park in the north Dallas suburb of Frisco.
DALLAS — After sitting vacant for 25 years, the 22-story Mercantile Commerce building located at 1712 Commerce St. in downtown Dallas, along with the neighboring building 1700 Commerce, are being redeveloped into three new downtown hotels with more than 425 rooms. NewcrestImage is the developer for the project. Phill Geheb of Munsch Hardt arranged financing for the redevelopment project. Construction is slated to begin next week for the hotels, whose brands include Residence Inn and Dallas’ first AC Marriot Hotel. The project received three forms of funding. The financing includes a $35.6 million construction loan, $7.8 million in federal tax credit equity and $8 million in state historic tax credit equity.
NewcrestImage Buys 13-Story Office Building in New Orleans for Dual-Branded Hotel Conversion
by John Nelson
NEW ORLEANS — NewcrestImage, a Dallas-based hotel developer and operator, has purchased a 13-story office building located at 1600 Canal St. in New Orleans. The company plans to repurpose the vacant building into a 105-room TownePlace Suites by Marriott and a 78-room SpringHill Suites by Marriott. Built in 1960 and vacant for the past 10 years, 1600 Canal St. is located at the intersection of Canal Street and I-10, nine blocks from the French Quarter and adjacent to the new 1,500-acre, $1.2 billion BioDistrict development. The asking price for the office building was $6 million, but the sales price was undisclosed. The two hotels will share amenities, including a single lobby, registration desk, breakfast area and indoor bar. There will be a single management and sales team, as well as a single housekeeping staff. The rooftop will be renovated into an 8,000-square-foot garden overlooking Canal Street and will feature an outdoor bar, exercise room and laundry facilities. NewcrestImage plans to open the two hotels by December 2016. Upon completion, the dual-branded hotel building will be the first property to combine the TownePlace Suites and SpringHill Suites brands into one building.
DALLAS — Hill & Wilkinson General Contractors has broken ground on a $175 million redevelopment project in downtown Dallas. Both the historic Statler Hilton Hotel, built in 1956 and located at 1900 Commerce St., and the adjacent Old Dallas Central Library will be renovated to create an entertainment hub. The 702,615-square-foot project includes complete restoration of the buildings’ exteriors and the conversion of the upper 11 stories into 229 residential units. The five middle stories will be converted into 164 hotel rooms. Two lower floors will be converted into ballrooms, meeting rooms, hotel services, lobbies, restaurants and retail space. The Jackson Street and basement levels of the Statler Hilton and the library will be converted into a 250-car parking garage. Centurion American Development Group is the owner and developer. Merriman Associates/Architects Inc. is the architect, and Besharkhah Engineering Inc. is the engineer for the project. Centurion plans to apply for Historic Tax Credits, and the city of Dallas has provided $43.5 million in tax increment financing for the redevelopment, which is slated for completion in December 2016.
NEW YORK CITY — Soundview Real Estate Partners and Chartwell Hospitality are developing a two-building Marriott hotel at New York City’s John. F. Kennedy International Airport. The partnership has tapped Gene Kaufman Architect to design the 260,000-square-foot project, which Soundview and Chartwell plan to break ground on in 2016.