Stephen A. Schafer, FelCor's investor relations director, isn't ready to say who was hired to sell the estimated 6,500 rooms across Texas, many in Dallas-Fort Worth, and the balance in secondary markets outside the state line. But, the broker's on board, he tells GlobeSt.com.

The "to go" list will be fine-tuned in the coming 30 to 45 days as locations and flags are tagged for sale. The properties are valued at $225 million to $250 million or $35,000 per key. "It's a continuation of the strategy that was implemented in 2000," Schafer says, noting that block of 25 properties is now down to six. It's estimated the latest list will take one year to 36 months to close out.

Two-thirds or 26 of the "to go" list are Six Continents-managed hotels, six are Hilton managed and one is contracted to an independent operator. FelCor is required to deploy net proceeds from a Six Continents sale into another Six Continents property or pay a termination fee. Acquisitions, should they come, most likely will be in the northeast and definitely in the high-end hotel or resort product lines, executives have said.

By FelCor's calculations, $50 million to $75 million of unencumbered assets will be sold before the year ends. "There is a lot of money out there today looking at hotel transactions...a lot of available money in private markets," Thomas J. Corcoran Jr., FelCor's president and CEO, said in the recent conference call.

Corcoran said the sale, not a fire sale by any means, "will be fairly aggressively marketed." He said secondary markets are now prime ground for "opportunity and upside from owner-occupied managers versus corporate-owned."

Close to $3 billion of hotel transactions closed in 2002. Corcoran said the industry is poised to do that again this year. And FelCor is positioning itself to tap buyers and capital as it strives to realign the portfolio with high-end, resort-type properties.