Sule Aygoren Carranza is associate editor for Real Estate Forum.

CHICAGO-In a deal expected to close next month, affiliates of the Blackstone Group have agreed to sell the AmeriSuites brand to locally based Hyatt Corp., based in Chicago. The hotel company and New York City-based Blackstone have worked together on several occasions through management and ownership relationships of Hyatt hotels; Hyatt also owns a minority stake in Homestead Studio Suites, an extended-stay hotel company Blackstone purchased a few years ago.

Terms of the transaction have not been released. Hyatt will pick up the 143-property, all-suite, upscale limited-service hotel chain, which has some 18,000 keys in 32 US states. The deal is a strategic part of the company's formation of Global Hyatt Corp., an umbrella company Hyatt chairman and CEO Thomas Pritzker hopes to have up and running by year's end. The new entity will serve as the parent of Hyatt Hotels Corp., including US, Canada and Caribbean operations; Hyatt International Corp.; Hyatt Equities, the company's ownership operations; and timeshare division Hyatt Vacation Club Inc.

"A primary objective of Global Hyatt's creation is to better utilize the power of the Hyatt brand, infrastructure, distribution network and talents of our people more intensively to increase earnings growth without compromising the value of our brand," Pritzker says in a statement. "The addition of AmeriSuites will enable us to create a new brand extension that will benefit the Hyatt brand and the owners and customers of our existing hotels, as well as the owners, franchisees and customers of AmeriSuites."

Ultimately, Pritzker envisions the new chain allowing Hyatt to create a new upscale limited-service leader brand that differs from its existing 214-property portfolio of upper-upscale and luxury hotels in 43 countries. This new brand will take off once Hyatt finished its planned $150-million program in capital improvements and marketing efforts for the new properties. Hyatt also plans to extend the newly formed division into strategic global markets.

A senior management team headed up by Jim Abrahamson, formerly president of Baymont Inns and Woodfield Suites, and Mike Leven, the founder, CEO and president of Hyatt subsidiary US Franchise Systems, is charged with the formation and operation of the brand that will be formed by the AmeriSuites acquisition.

Instant Insights /

Hyatt To Buy AmeriSuites From Blackstone

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