WASHINGTON, DC-LaSalle Hotel Properties has acquired Hotel Palomar for $143.8 million in an off-market transaction. The 335-key hotel is located close to Dupont Circle, at 2121 P St., NW. The REIT sold common shares through its ATM, or at-the-market, program in January and February to help fund the transaction, realizing $46.6 million in proceeds. It also funded the trade with borrowings from its senior unsecured credit facility.

Hotel Palomar is located around the corner from LaSalle Hotel Properties’ Hotel Madera. It will continue to be managed by the Kimpton Hotel and Restaurant Group, LLC.

The hotel is in great physical condition and offers several attractive amenities, says Michael D. Barnello, president and CEO of LaSalle Hotel Properties, in a prepared statement.  “We are very familiar with the excellent location of this asset through our ownership of several other hotels in the neighborhood.” The new addition also brings the number of its hotels managed by Kimpton to 10, he says.

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Along with the 335 rooms, which includes 26 suites, the property also has 11,000 square feet of meeting and function space.

Hotels, after a period of near paralysis in the second half of 2011, are starting to trade again, as this and other deals illustrate. REITs, such as LaSalle Hotel Properties, are the main drivers to these transactions. Last month, HEI Hotels & Resorts has acquired the 154-room Hotel Palomar Arlington from JBG Cos., for an undisclosed price. The only boutique hotel in this submarket, HEI Hotels plans to rebrand it as Le Meridien Arlington. 

In January, LaSalle Hotel Properties closed on its acquisition of the Park Central Hotel, a 934-key hotel at 870 7th Ave. in Midtown Manhattan, for $396.2 million.