ST. LOUIS — Midas Construction and HDA Architects have completed a new 192-room AC Hotel in the Central West End of St. Louis. The seven-story building, which spans 94,300 square feet, is the first AC Hotel within the St. Louis market. Amenities include a fitness center, meeting and event spaces and a curated food and beverage program.
TUCSON, ARIZ. — Scottsdale-based Sterling Real Estate Partners has acquired Hotel Tucson City Center in an off-market transaction for an undisclosed price. The company plans to convert the hotel into market-rate apartments. Originally built in the 1960s, the 278-room hotel will be transformed into a modern, 210-unit apartment complex. The seven-building, 10-acre site is located adjacent to the historic El Presidio neighborhood in downtown Tucson. Residences will consist of luxury studio and one-bedroom units, ranging from 300 square feet to 700 square feet. Site amenities of the converted property will include upgrades to the pool area, fitness room, clubhouse, conference room, dog park and outdoor lounge. Upon completion, the apartments will offer low gross rents with luxury interiors finishes to support the high demand for quality affordable housing in the downtown submarket. Sterling had the property under contract since January 2021 while it underwent the rezoning process for residential use. The company collaborated with neighbors throughout the process to receive zoning approval without opposition. Upon purchase, Sterling will become a Choice Hotel franchisee and has engaged Ledgestone Hospitality to operate the four-story building as a hotel, while the adjacent buildings are converted to apartments. Additionally, the site was approved for …
TAMPA, FLA. — Current Rocky Point LLC, an affiliate of Tampa-based Caspers Co., has acquired The Current Hotel, an Autograph Collection hotel by Marriott in Tampa. The price was $85 million. Dave Weymer, Michael Weinberg, Preston Reid and Wyatt Krapf of Berkadia Hotels & Hospitality represented the seller, Rocky Point Holdings LLC, in the transaction. American Momentum Bank provided a $55 million loan to the buyer. Built in 2019, The Current Hotel features 180 rooms, the Julian Restaurant, Rox Rooftop Bar and a lobby bar. The hotel property also includes a private beach, infinity pool and waterfront views from every guestroom. Located at 2545 N. Rocky Point Drive, the hotel is 4.8 miles from the Tampa International Airport, 0.5 miles from East Tampa Beach and 15 miles from Clearwater. The property is also situated near restaurants such as Whiskey Joe’s Bar & Grill and Oystercatchers.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Boston-based developer CV Properties has completed the $55 million Aloft Providence Downtown Hotel. The hotel consists of 175 rooms and meeting spaces, a fitness center, grab-and-go food market, a lobby bar with patio seating and a rooftop bar with views of the downtown skyline. Elkus Manfredi Architects designed the project, and Shawmut Design & Construction served as the construction manager. Construction began in January 2020.
DETROIT — Friedman Real Estate has brokered the sale of the Westin Book Cadillac hotel in downtown Detroit. A joint venture between Oxford Capital Group LLC and Taconic Capital Advisors LP assumed debt owed by the previous owner, which faced foreclosure. The joint venture assumed $77 million in commercial mortgage-backed securities debt owed by Cleveland-based Ferchill Group, according to Crain’s Detroit Business. Located at 1114 Washington Blvd. within the city’s Washington Boulevard Historic District, the hotel rises 32 stories with 453 rooms. The property served as Detroit’s tallest building and the world’s tallest hotel when it opened as the Book-Cadillac hotel in 1924. The hotel was redeveloped and branded as Westin in 2008. The new ownership plans to make improvements to the common areas, amenities and guest rooms over the next two years. Jared Friedman of the brokerage negotiated the sale.
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Development and investment firm Turnbridge Equities has broken ground on a 344-room hotel at 617 Colorado St. in downtown Austin that will be operated under the citizenM brand. Amenities will include a pool, fitness center and a rooftop bar. Baskervill is the architect of record for the project, and Dutch firm Concrete is handling interior design. Gilbane is the general contractor for the project, and Bank OZK provided construction financing. The opening is slated for late 2023.
ATLANTA — Atlanta-based Songy Highroads (SHR) has opened the Hyatt Centric Hotel in the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta. Construction on the 15-story hotel started in early 2020 and finished this month. SHR developed the hotel in a joint venture with Chicago-based Hyatt Hotels Corp. Designed by New York-based Sawyer & Co., the Hyatt Centric Buckhead Atlanta hotel features 218 guestrooms (including seven suites), two dining concepts and more than 3,700 square feet of meeting and event spaces. The guestrooms average 400 square feet in size, while the suites exceed 850 square feet. Each guestroom offers a variety of amenities including a 65-inch flat-screen TV, bathrobe, bath amenities and a salon-quality hair dryer. Other hotel amenities include a fitness center and an outdoor heated plunge pool with pool sundeck located on the second floor. The two dining concepts include Mount Royal, a Montreal-style steakhouse located on the ground floor, and Spaceman, an indoor-outdoor lounge with cocktails and shareable dishes located on the 15th floor rooftop. The hotel is located next to Bloomingdale’s at Lenox Square, Simon’s enclosed shopping mall fronting Lenox and Peachtree roads. The property is also close to PATH400, a multi-use trail for bicyclists and pedestrians, Shops Around Lenox …
LAS VEGAS — Hard Rock International has agreed to acquire the operations of The Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas for more than $1 billion. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2022. Hard Rock also revealed that it plans to build a guitar-shaped hotel, which will be located on the Las Vegas Strip. When complete, Hard Rock Las Vegas will be a fully integrated resort welcoming meetings, groups, tourists and casino guests across its nearly 80-acre location, according to Jim Allen, chairman of Hard Rock. The seller, MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM), acquired The Mirage in 2000. The property originally opened in 1989 and is known for its 90-foot volcano. MGM is selling to focus on other opportunities, such as sports betting and expansion in Asia. “This announcement marks the culmination of a series of transformational transactions for MGM during the last several years,” says Paul Salem, chairman of the board of directors for MGM. “The monetization of our entire real estate property portfolio, together with the addition of CityCenter and our agreement to acquire The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, will position the company with a fortress balance sheet, premier portfolio and significant financial …
MIAMI — Royal Palm Cos. (RPC) has received a $340 million construction loan from New York City-based Silverstein Capital Partners for the development of Legacy Hotel & Residences, a mixed-use hospitality property in downtown Miami. The hotel development is part of Miami Worldcenter, a $4 billion, 27-acre mixed-use development underway by Miami Worldcenter Associates. Legacy will offer 310 for-sale residential units on top of a 219-room hotel. The project’s residential units all sold out in May 2021 in less than 12 months. Construction on the property broke ground in August and is slated for completion by 2024. Community amenities at the mixed-use tower include ground-floor retail space, five restaurant and bar concepts, a hotel pool deck, enclosed seven-story rooftop atrium with a restaurant bar and lounge and a members-only international business lounge. Other than the residential and hotel space, Legacy will also include a 10-floor, $100 million medical center known as Blue Zones Medical and Wellbeing Center. RPC’s design team for the Legacy Hotel project includes Miami-based Kobi Karp Architects, Design Agency and ID & Design International. Martin Schwartz and Anthony de Yurre of Bilzin Sumberg provided legal counsel to the development team in the loan transaction.
“I see friends shaking hands, saying how do you do…” Like many urban city centers, New Orleans has faced unprecedented challenges from COVID-19 over the past 19 months. The metro area lost more than 85,000 jobs between second-quarter 2019 and second-quarter 2020. In an economy heavily reliant on tourism, Orleans Parish was the most impacted with over 41,000 jobs lost, predominantly in the hospitality sector. Retailers — and their employees — depend on the large boosts of economic activity provided by large-format gatherings such as conventions and festivals like Jazz Fest, French Quarter Fest, and Mardi Gras, all of which were cancelled for the past 24 months. Additionally, the very active hurricane seasons of 2020 and 2021 resulted in devastation from three major storms in economic centers along our coastal community. New Orleans is still navigating clean-up efforts following Hurricane Ida, which landed Aug. 29, while real estate developers, builders and tenants face even more pricing and timing challenges due to material and worker shortages that were further hindered by storm activity. However, we are marching in the right direction. Cruises are resuming from Port of New Orleans (Port NOLA). Business travelers are getting back on the road. Offices are …
