MetLife on Thursday announced that it has acquired from Ivanhoé Cambridge the 415-room Fairmont Hotel in Washington, D.C., for US$180 million. Fairmont will continue to manage the property for MetLife.
“This was a great opportunity to acquire a luxury asset in a top tier market. It will complement our strategic approach to real estate and generate the kind of steady cash flows we need to meet our long-term policyholder obligations,” said Robert Merck, senior managing director and global head of real estate investments for MetLife.
The Fairmont was built in 1985 and renovated in 2002. In addition to 385 guest rooms and 30 suites, the hotel has 28,000 square feet (2,601 square meters) of meeting space and 4,800 (446 square meters) square feet of executive conference space. It is also one of only three hotels in the capital with a large outdoor amenity space.
MetLife had approximately US$43 billion in commercial real estate mortgages and nearly US$16 billion in equity investments as of September 2014.