Hotels Sold for $137 Million, Market briefs

In Houston, A joint venture of Dallas-based NewcrestImage and Phoenix-based Hospitality Capital Partners purchased 16 Marriott-branded hotels in nine states for $137.3 million, CBRE reports.

A Houston property, the 153-room Courtyard by Marriott Houston Hobby Airport, 9190 Gulf Freeway, was sold as part of the portfolio, which included a total of 2,155 hotel rooms.

Al Calhoun and Mark Fair of CBRE Hotels’ Capital Markets Institutional Group represented the seller, a Massachusetts-based REIT called Service Properties Trust.

The portfolio consists of 13 Courtyard by Marriott hotels and three Residence Inn by Marriott hotels. These properties are located in Georgia, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. Eleven of the properties also underwent major renovations between 2018 and 2019.

“Closing this transaction was particularly satisfying given the size of the deal and the challenges we’re facing in the debt markets,” said Calhoun, Vice Chairman with CBRE Hotels in Atlanta. “We were able to complete this transaction by breaking it up into three deals with three different lenders. These lenders had great confidence in the sponsorship and the quality of the brands and markets.”

U.S. hotels saw approximately $44.9 billion of investment over the last four quarters ending in the fourth quarter of 2022, as stated by a recent CBRE report. Last quarter alone, hotels experienced $11.9 billion of investment, accounting for 9.3 percent of total capital markets activity.

NewcrestImage is no stranger to Houston.

In 2016, NewcrestImage purchased a 10-story historic building at 723 Main at Rusk in downtown Houston from Boxer Property. The 100-year-old building, formerly known as the Houston Bar Center, was redeveloped into an AC Hotel by Marriott.

NewcrestImage was instrumental in popularizing the AC by Marriott brand. Known for its emphasis on design, the AC Hotel brand operated in Europe for years before breaking into the U.S. market in 2014 with NewcrestImage’s 220-room AC Hotel in the historic Cotton Exchange building near the French Quarter in New Orleans.