WEBSTER, TEXAS — Great Wolf Resorts Inc., a hospitality owner-operator known for indoor water park-themed lodging properties, has broken ground on a 27-acre project in Webster, a southeastern suburb of Houston. The resort will house 532 hotel rooms, a 95,000-square-foot indoor water park, a 58,000-square-foot family entertainment center and multiple food-and-beverage outlets. Great Wolf is financing the project in part through a $200 million investment from shareholders Blackstone and Centerbridge Partners. Construction of the resort, which is slated for a mid- to late-2024 completion, is expected to create about 600 full- and part-time jobs.
PANAMA CITY BEACH, FLA. — The Radco Cos., an opportunistic real estate investment firm based in Atlanta, has purchased three hotels in Panama City Beach totaling 281 rooms. The properties include a Home2 Suites, adjacent Fairfield Inn & Suites and a Hampton Inn. All three hotels will be managed by LBA Hospitality. Hospitality Real Estate Counselors (HREC) served as brokers for the Home2 Suites and Fairfield Inn properties, with Hunter Hotel Advisors brokering the Hampton Inn deal. The sellers and sales price were not disclosed. The new ownership plans to make capital improvements to the three hotels. Radco launched a hotel investment division in early 2021 in response to disruptions to the hospitality industry caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
PACKWOOD, WASH. — Crystal Investment Property (CIP) has arranged the sale of Packwood Lodge, a select-service hotel located at 13807 US-12 in Packwood. Terms of the transaction were not released. The 30-guest room Packwood Lodge includes extensive capital improvements, 21 updated guest rooms or suites and nine detached cabins. The property features a lobby with a breakfast area, office, laundry room, owner’s quarters and a hotel-adjacent leased restaurant. Rooms and suites include flatscreen TVs, mini fridges, microwaves, coffee makers and high-speed wireless internet. The cabins, completed in 2019, feature kitchenettes, dining areas, jacuzzi tubs and outdoor decks. Joseph Kennedy of CIP, along with the CIP team, represented the buyer and seller in the transaction.
BETHESDA, MD. — Marriott International has opened its new global headquarters campus in downtown Bethesda. The hotel giant’s home base is a 21-story, 785,000-square-foot office tower that houses around 3,500 Marriott employees working from 2,842 workspaces (including offices, workstations and flexible spaces). The LEED Gold-certified tower had a six-year construction timeline, according to Marriott. The design-build team includes architectural firm Gensler and general contractors Hensel Phelps and Rand Construction. The Bernstein Cos. and Boston Properties jointly own Marriott’s campus. In addition to the office tower, Marriott’s corporate campus includes the new Marriott Bethesda Downtown at Marriott HQ hotel next door that also serves as Marriott’s testing ground for new concepts, design elements, service approaches and amenities via 13 model hotel rooms. Within the office tower, Marriott operates an 8,400-square-foot lab, as well as a test kitchen and bar for research-and-development purposes. Each office within the tower has views from the floor-to-ceiling windows, and all desks are equipped with sit-stand optionality and ergonomic chairs. The tower includes 180 meeting and collaboration areas, as well as an “associate growth center” on the top floor that offers staffers access to leadership development programs, skill development curriculum, guest speakers, new hire orientation and networking …
PORTLAND, ORE. — Pebblebrook Hotel Trust has completed the disposition of Kimpton Hotel Vintage Portland, located at 422 SW Broadway in Portland. Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based Pacifica Hotels acquired the property for $32.9 million. Originally constructed in the late 1800s, the European-inspired hotel underwent a multimillion-dollar makeover in 2015 and 2018 that overhauled the lobby, rooms and amenities. Currently, each hotel floor is dedicated to a different Willamette Valley American Viticultural Area and each room is named after a local winery. The hotel features 117 guest rooms, 8,000 square feet of event space, a street-level restaurant and bar called Il Solito and Bacchus Bar, a private wine cellar and a game lounge. Additionally, the hotel’s lobby doubles as a tasting room. Chris Burdett, Matthew Behrens and Aaron Solaimani of CBRE Hotels in the Pacific Northwest represented the seller in the deal.
CLAYTON, MO. — Midas Construction has broken ground on the $50 million AC Hotel Clayton in the St. Louis suburb of Clayton. The hotel will rise 11 stories with 207 rooms. Completion is slated for early 2024. The project is revitalizing a historic, underutilized site that once housed the former headquarters of the Clayton Police, which relocated in 2011. The hotel, designed for business and leisure travelers, will feature a rooftop bar and restaurant that will be open to the public. Construction was originally scheduled to begin in March 2020 but was postponed due to the pandemic. The development team consists of Koplar Properties, HomeBase Partners and Concord Hospitality.
GRAPEVINE, TEXAS — A joint venture between NewcrestImage and Hospitality Capital Partners (HCP) has agreed to acquire 16 Marriott-branded hotels totaling 2,155 rooms across nine states. The portfolio includes 13 Courtyard and three Residence Inn properties located in Georgia, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter. The seller and price were not disclosed. “This acquisition affirms our high expectations and high confidence in hotel investments, both near term and long term,” says Mehul Patel, managing partner and CEO of Grapevine-based NewcrestImage. Over the company’s history, HCP and its principals have owned almost 50 hotels in the western United States, notably The Saguaro Scottsdale, located in that city’s historic Old Town area. Other projects include 25 golf courses through its associated company, Parks Legacy Project. After selling 27 hotels in January to Summit Hotel Properties for $822 million, NewcrestImage has been in active acquisition mode. The company has added 76 hotels totaling approximately 7,600 rooms since March, including this latest transaction. Earlier this month, NewcrestImage agreed to purchase 45 hotels with a total of approximately 3,300 rooms from a private investment firm. The portfolio includes 35 …
SAN ANTONIO — Hospitality development and management firm Winston Hotels is nearing completion of a project in downtown San Antonio that will convert an office building into a 343-room dual-branded hotel. The AC by Marriott component will total 181 rooms and is scheduled to launch in early October, and the Element by Westin brand will comprise 162 rooms that are slated to come on line before the end of the year. Guests of both hotels will have access to multiple bars and lounges, a fitness center, business center and 4,000 square feet of meeting space.
KEY WEST, FLA. — Sonnenblick-Eichner Co. has arranged $82.4 million in financing for Ocean Key Resort & Spa, a 100-room waterfront hotel in Key West. The borrower, Kirkland, Wash.-based Noble House Hotels & Resorts, will use the five-year, fixed-rate loan to pay off an existing loan and fund a $10.5 million renovation of the property. An unnamed life insurance company provided the nonrecourse loan, which is interest-only for the entire term. Ocean Key’s amenities include a full-service restaurant, oceanfront pool with cabanas and a poolside bar and spa. The resort also includes Sunset Pier and the Sunset Pier Restaurant and Bar.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — JLL’s Hotels & Hospitality Group has negotiated the sale of Mandarin Oriental, Washington D.C., a luxury hotel in the city’s southwest district that spans nine stories and 373 rooms. The sales price was not disclosed. The buyer, London-based private equity real estate manager Henderson Park, has rebranded the hotel as Salamander Washington D.C. under the management of Middleburg, Va.-based Salamander Hotels & Resorts. Gilda Perez-Alvarado, Jeffrey Davis and Stephany Chen of JLL represented the seller, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group International Ltd., in the transaction. Mark Fisher of JLL arranged an undisclosed amount of acquisition financing on behalf of Henderson Park. Built in 2004 and recently renovated, the hotel overlooks the Tidal Basin and the Washington Channel. Nearby attractions include the National Mall, Washington Monument, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Thomas Jefferson Memorial and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.