KEY WEST, FLA. — LaSalle Hotel Properties has acquired the 260-room Southernmost Hotel Collection in Key West for $184.5 million. The acquisition includes the Southernmost on the Beach, Southernmost Hotel in the USA and La Mer Hotel & Dewey House properties. LaSalle funded the transaction with borrowings from its senior unsecured credit facility. The hotel property is located on the southern end of Duval Street, which runs through Key West's Old Town, home to bars, restaurants, shops and historic sites. The hotel includes 3,128 square feet of meeting space and 2,488 square feet of outdoor space. About $13.8 million has been invested in the hotel's upkeep in the last three years. Highgate Hotels will operate the Southernmost Hotel Collection.
IRVING, TEXAS — HREC Investment Advisors has brokered the sale of the Ramada DFW Airport North Hotel in Irving. The 140-room property is located on Ester Road directly off Highway 114 and is in close proximity to the new Irving Convention Center, Gaylord Convention Center Hotel and the Grapevine Mills Mall, besides Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Hank Wolpert of HREC represented the seller in the transaction. Buyer Pramukhraj Irving LLC plans to rebrand the hotel.
NOVI, MICH. — Hyatt Hotels Corp. and Packard Hospitality Group have celebrated the opening of the 126-room Hyatt Place Detroit/Novi. Attached to Suburban Collection Showplace as an expansion to the Diamond Banquet and Conference Center, the new six-story hotel will be the first Hyatt-branded hotel in Novi, a northwest suburb of Detroit. The hotel features more than 9,000 square feet of meeting space, complimentary Wi-FI, interior pool and A Coffee to Cocktails Bar.
LAUREL, MD. — Sperry Van Ness | Small Shah Commercial Advisors has brokered the sale of a Hampton Inn hotel, located on Braygreen Road in Laurel. The buyer, Neema Laurel LP, purchased the hotel for approximately $6.4 million. Shailesh Shah of Sperry Van Ness | Small Shah Commercial Advisors represented the seller, Mt. Laurel Hospitality, in the transaction.
RIDGELAND, MISS. — Hilton Worldwide has opened its 21st U.S. Home2 Suites by Hilton hotel, which is designed for business travelers and extended-stay guests. Home2 Suites by Hilton Jackson/Ridgeland is the second Home2 Suites hotel in Mississippi. The four-story, 92-suite hotel is located at 526 Evergreen St. in Ridgeland. New Vision Ridgeland Hotel LLC owns the property, and New Vision Hotel Management is the hotel's manager. The hotel's amenity package includes a fitness center, laundry facility, continental breakfast station, lobby, saline pool, patio with gas grills and a fire pit.
ATLANTA — RLJ Lodging Trust, a publicly traded hospitality REIT, has acquired the 78-room Residence Inn Atlanta Midtown Historic in Atlanta's Midtown submarket. RLJ Lodging, which bought a mortgage loan collateralized by the hotel in 2009 for $5 million, purchased the hotel through a foreclosure sale after the borrower defaulted on the loan earlier this year. The hotel will be closed later this year to undergo a comprehensive renovation that will include upgrades to the guest rooms and public spaces. The hotel will reopen in the third quarter of 2013 under the Residence Inn by Marriott flag.
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Developer/owner JMI Realty is partnering with management firm Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants on a new four-star hotel in Austin’s historic Rainey District. The project, to be known as Hotel Van Zandt, will feature 322 guest rooms over 16 floors, 12,000 square feet of event and meeting space, a gourmet restaurant and pool deck with bar. The award-winning Mark Zeff will oversee interior design of the hotel, expected to open in early 2015. San Francisco-based Kimpton, which specializes in boutique hotels, expands its Texas footprint to four properties with this development.
CHICAGO —A $25 million renovation of the Hyatt Chicago Magnificent Mile, which includes a new signature restaurant known as Level 2, is now complete. The hotel updated its 419 guestrooms, meeting space, lobby, indoor pool and fitness center. Chicago-based Looney & Associates led the design effort. It also added an Escape Bar, which offers space for informal small meetings with complimentary Wi-Fi, four iMac computers, two LCD HDTVs and printers. Guestrooms now feature new carpeting, drapery, wall covering, entertainment centers and oversized desks along with a stereo iPod docking station. The fitness center has been expanded by 60 percent and includes new cardio equipment with Wi-Fi access, individual TV screens and iPhone docking stations. The Level 2 restaurant serves contemporary American cuisine with organic local ingredients along with specialty cocktails and craft beers.
HOUSTON — Houston-based real estate services firm Midway has added the Four Points by Sheraton Houston West to its CITYCENTRE development. The 171-room full-service hotel was originally part of the Town & Country Mall complex, which was razed to make way for Midway’s project in 2007. The Four Points will provide a lower price point for travelers than the development’s existing hospitality property, Hotel Sorella. The acquisition increases the footprint of CITYCENTRE by approximately three acres and extends its northern boundary to Interstate 10.
RALEIGH, N.C. AND NASHVILLE, TENN. — Philadelphia-based Lubert-Adler has sold two hotels in Raleigh and Nashville totaling 648 rooms to New York City-based Carey Watermark Investors for $156.6 million. Lubert-Adler sold the 400-room Marriott Raleigh City Center for $83 million and the 248-room Hutton Hotel in Nashville for $74.3 million. The Marriott Raleigh City Center was developed through a public-private partnership with the city of Raleigh in conjunction with the city's new 500,000-square-foot convention center. Hutton Hotel was an adaptive re-use project of a 170,000-square-foot Class C office tower in Nashville's West End.