Green loan for Cerberus, Highgate: Aareal Bank, Germany, has closed an “upper double-digit million” British pound green loan to an affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management and Highgate to refinance the acquisition of the Dorsett City Hotel in London. The senior loan has a tenure of five years and is Aareal Bank’s second green loan provided as per its Green Finance Framework. The 267-room Dorsett City Hotel opened in 2018.
Lowe, investor JV acquires hotels in Texas: A joint venture between Lowe, Los Angeles, California, and an institutional investor has acquired three hotels located in The Woodlands, Texas, from The Howard Hughes Corp. for US$252 million. The three hotels — the 402-room Woodlands Resort, 302-room Westin at The Woodlands and 205-room Embassy Suites by Hilton, The Woodlands at Hughes Landing — will continue to be managed by CoralTree Hospitality, Lowe’s hospitality management arm, which took over management last September. The partnership will invest another US$25 million for renovations across the portfolio. With this sale, Howard Hughes closed around US$376 million of the targeted US$600 million net proceeds in the sale of non-core assets.
Milestone for NYC hotels: Hotel performance in the U.S. dipped marginally from the previous week, as per STR’s latest data through September 11.
- Occupancy: 60% (-13.6%)
- Average daily rate (ADR): US$130.82 (-1.4%)
- Revenue per available room (RevPAR): US$78.46 (-14.8%)
Despite the week-over-week decline, performance levels remained solid on an absolute basis, considering holidays like Labor Day and Rosh Hashanah were on the same week. Among the top 25 markets, Tampa saw the only increase in occupancy (+0.3% to 61.5%). San Francisco/San Mateo saw the steepest decline in occupancy when compared with 2019 (-44.6% to 49.4%). Miami reported the largest ADR rise (+30.4% to US$171.02). The highest RevPAR deficits were in San Francisco/San Mateo (-64.6% to US$80.64) and Washington, D.C. (-55.8% to US$62.26). Notably, New York City hit 500,000 room nights sold for the first time amid the pandemic, driven by Broadway shows reopening and the final weekend of the U.S. Open Tennis Championships.
Leadership changes at Huazhu: Qi Ji, CEO of Huazhu Group Ltd., Shanghai, will step down from his role due to personal reasons from October 1, the company announced. Qi will continue in his role as the chairman of the board of directors. Current President Hui Jin will take charge as CEO, and Xinxin Liu, Huazhu’s current chief digital officer, will be appointed president.
AWH deal financed: A CIM Group-managed fund has closed a US$67.5 million loan to The Roxborough Group and AWH Partners to acquire the 189-room Hotel Villa Florence in San Francisco, California. The property will be managed by AWH’s Spire Hospitality. Pebblebrook Hotel Trust sold the property for US$87.5 million based on the hotel’s operating performance for 2019, reflecting an EBITDA multiple of 12.4x and a 7.2% net operating income capitalization rate (after an assumed annual capital reserve of 4% of total revenues).
Holiday spending forecast in US: Deloitte made its U.S. holiday retail sales forecast on Thursday, which included a comment on increased spend on services, including restaurants and travel. However, the ongoing pandemic and associated uncertainty may drive more spending on goods than services, it said. Holiday retail sales are expected to increase between 7% and 9%, totaling close to US$1.30 trillion between November and January.
Radisson launches art project: Keeping up with the experiential movement in hotel stays, Radisson Collection, the group’s lifestyle soft brand, has created global partnerships with emerging artists who will create works, starting in the U.K. with photographer Rich McCor, also known as Paperboyo, and Chinese contemporary artists and illustrator Fei Wang, also known as Mr. Slowboy. The collaborations will continue in 2022 and artworks will be showcased across platforms of Radisson Collection and the artists’ social media pages. The works of art will also be displayed inside the hotels after each artist’s tenure.