HARRISON, N.J. — Advance Realty is developing an AC Hotel by Marriott in the Riverbend District, the company’s 35-acre redevelopment project in Harrison. The 85,000-square-foot hotel will feature 150 guest rooms, a bar and lounge area, a breakfast area, outdoor seating, a meeting room, fitness center and a lobby. Additionally, the hotel will feature more than 4,300 square feet of retail and restaurant space, which will complement the residential, retail and office space that is under development in the Riverbend District.
Hospitality
BOSTON — Moody National REIT I Inc. has entered into a contract to acquire Hampton Inn Boston for an aggregate purchase price of $57 million, excluding acquisition costs. The 227-room hotel is located within close proximity to Boston Logan International Airport and five miles from downtown Boston. The acquisition of the hotel is subject to substantial conditions to closing.
OAKLAND, CALIF. — DiNapoli Capital Partners has acquired the 489-room Marriott City Center in downtown Oakland for a reported $84 million. The hotel is located at 1001 Broadway. The property is attached to the Oakland Convention Center. It is one block from a BART station. The seller, CIM Group, renovated the hotel in 2011, modernizing all common areas and guest rooms. It also partnered with the City of Oakland to renovate the hotel and convention center’s combined 89,000 square feet of meeting space. CIM acquired the Oakland Marriott in 2007. It was the company’s first asset in downtown Oakland. The firm currently maintains a Bay Area portfolio of about 3 million square feet of Class A space. CIM has disposed of a total of 570 residential units, 908 hotel rooms and about 1,420,000 square feet of retail space, including this latest sale, since the beginning of the year.
KANSAS CITY, MO. — Laurus Corp. has completed a $10 million renovation on the Hilton Kansas City Airport Hotel. The property is located at 8801 NW 112th St. All 347 guest rooms and guest bathrooms saw renovations including new carpeting, stonework and modern artwork. All three ballrooms include 21,000 square feet of total meeting space and the largest meeting room accommodates up to 700 people in a theater-style setting. The newly renovated indoor/outdoor pool and lounge is designed to create an oasis for guests to relax and unwind. In addition, the restaurant and bar was revamped and now operates as Asado Grill. Surrounded by more than 6 million square feet of office space, including several Fortune 500 companies, the hotel offers proximity to shopping, dining and other entertainment venues.
WAXAHACHIE, TEXAS — Atlanta-based Hotel Equities and owners Thomas and Michael Chen of Scenic Capital Advisors have broken ground on a new Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott hotel in Waxahachie. The hotel will be located at 2020 Civic Center Lane at the intersection of I-35 E and Highway 287, 30 minutes south of Dallas. Expected to open in early summer 2016, the hotel will sit beside the Waxahachie Civic Center, and across from the newly completed Baylor Scott & White Hospital.
One of the biggest stories in the hotel industry today is the growth of the boutique segment. Independent groups such as Ace Hotels, 21C, Grupo Habita and citizenM registered record growth in the last few years. Meanwhile, all the major brands have incorporated a boutique component. That trend was reinforced last December when IHG purchased Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants. For its part, Hyatt launched Andaz several years ago, and Marriott has rolled out the Autograph Collection, Moxy, EDITION and AC Hotels in the past few years. Even Best Western has unveiled its new urban boutique concept — Vib. I get the following question a lot: “Why should we invest in boutique hotels?” The conventional wisdom among investment funds tasked with finding hotel assets is to look for branded assets in the top five markets that are deemed less risky by pundits. However, some hotel investors don’t realize the substantial RevPAR (revenue per available room) premiums you can get with boutique properties over standard branded hotels. Among boutique properties, we’re seeing RevPAR premiums of 10 to 20 percent — sometimes 50 percent — over traditional hotels (see chart). Boutique hotels have less rigorous brand standards, if any at all, and offer …
SAVANNAH, GA. — Meridian Capital Group has arranged an $18.2 million acquisition loan for Holiday Inn Savannah Historic District in Savannah. The five-story, 127-room hotel is located at 15 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Savannah’s Historic District. The hotel opened in 2007 as a Four Points by Sheraton and was renovated and rebranded in 2014. Noam Kaminetzky of Meridian’s Boca Raton, Fla., office arranged the two-year, interest-only loan through a balance sheet lender with an exit to CMBS execution. The floating-rate loan features a one-year extension option. The unnamed borrower is a large international hotel operator, according to Meridian Capital Group.
FLOWER MOUND, TEXAS — New Era Hotels & Resorts and Sunset Legacy LP plan to develop a 12-story, 220-room luxury hotel and conference center overlooking Lake Grapevine in Flower Mound. The development, which will be called The Pearl on the Peninsula Hotel & Conference Center, will overlook the Grapevine Lake from 40-foot bluffs. It will be the centerpiece of the southern 25-acre peninsula, which is part of the 150-acre mixed-use development, Lakeside DFW. The Tarwater and Stewart families, who have collectively owned the property since the 1890s, are driving the development of The Pearl on The Peninsula Hotel & Conference Center. The Flower Mound Town Council approved a measure that will assist New Era Hotels & Resorts in developing the hotel and conference center. The 12-story hotel will include a 32,000-square-foot conference center. The developer plans to seek LEED certification. Tarwater and New Era Hotels & Resorts are leading the development effort and DePalma Hotels & Resorts will manage the property. The project team includes Merriman Associates/Architects, TBG (landscape design), Duncan, Miller, Ullmann Design (interior design), Gateway Planning (master planning) and Kimley-Horn (engineering). Balfour Beatty is acting as design builder.
LAFAYETTE, LA. — Hilton Worldwide has opened DoubleTree by Hilton Lafayette, a 15-story, 327-room hotel located at 1521 W. Pinhook Road near downtown Lafayette and three miles from Lafayette Regional Airport. The hotel is located along the banks of the Vermillion River and features a newly updated outdoor pool and sundeck, 24-hour fitness center, 24-hour business center, 22,000 square feet of meeting space and complimentary Wi-Fi. The hotel also features the SoLA Restaurant and Lobby Bar and 337, a bar located on the ground floor of the hotel. The property was formerly a Hilton hotel and has since undergone a $12 million renovation. Garrison Wright Prop Co JV LLC owns the hotel and Hospitality Management Advisors manages the property.
ATLANTA — Hodges Ward Elliott has brokered the sale of the dual-branded Hilton Garden Inn/Homewood Suites Atlanta Midtown. The 12-story, 228-room property is located in Atlanta’s Midtown district near I-75/85. The hotel features 136 Hilton Garden Inn rooms, 92 Homewood Suites units, a 24-hour fitness center, two business centers, two breakfast areas, two lobbies and reception desks, the Garden Grill & Bar restaurant and 3,027 square feet of meeting space. Hodges Ward Elliott represented the seller, North Point Hospitality Group Inc., in the transaction. The buyer was Carey Watermark Investors Inc. Crescent Hotels & Resorts will manage the hotel.