PASADENA, CA-MPG Office Trust has sold its 350-room Westin Pasadena hotel at 191 N. Los Robles Ave. to Norwalk, CT-based HEI Hotels & Resorts for $92 million, according to public filings by the Downtown L.A.-based REIT and an announcement by HEI. MPG calls the hotel a non-core asset and disposed of it as part of an ongoing program to shed assets to reduce debt. MPG was represented by managing director Patrick Deming of Eastdil Secured in the sale.

Anthony Rutledge, CFO of HEI, said that new financing was provided at closing by Wells Fargo. The hotel is adjacent to Pasadena City Hall and the Civic Center area in Downtown Pasadena. Russ Urban, HEI’s SVP of acquisitions and development, called the property "arguably the best asset in one of the strongest submarkets in California,” thanks to "a strong mix of corporate transient and leisure demand throughout the San Gabriel Valley."

The sale followed "a wide marketing process," according to MPG public filings. The REIT said that $79 million of the proceeds of the sale was used to repay the mortgage loan secured by the hotel and the adjacent 193,000-square-foot Plaza Las Fuentes office building, which is now unencumbered. The remaining $13 million of cash proceeds, along with reserves totaling $2 million returned to the company by the lender upon repayment of the mortgage loan, is available to MPG as unrestricted cash.