HOUSTON—Moody National REIT Inc.said Thursday it was in contract to buy a portfolio of 149 US hotels for $1.725 billion. The non-traded REIT did not identify the seller; however, Bloomberg Business has reported that the portfolio is being sold by Goldman Sachs' real estate unit, Whitehall Street.

"This is a great concentration of assets in key states which will benefit from several years remaining in the expanding hotel cycle," says Brett Moody, CEO and chairman of the Houston-based REIT. "These are well-branded and well-managed assets."

The portfolio includes 14,000 units spread across 32 states, with a concentration of hotels in California, Arizona, Texas and the Northeast. The majority of the portfolio consists of Marriott and Hilton branded select-service hotels.

A deal of this size comes as no surprise to analysts. "The hotel market has been flush with portfolio deals during this cycle, with deals ranging from two-property limited service portfolios in secondary/tertiary markets, all the way on up to 150-property deals,” analyst Evan Weiss, executive managing director, principal, LW Hospitality Advisors, told Rayna Katz, GlobeSt.com's East Coast editor. “This transaction comes on the heels of a 50-property economy-class portfolio being purchased by Starwood Capital just the other day for inclusion in its InTown Suites brand. There is clearly a consolidation of assets into large entities, both public and private, and a healthy appetite for both buyers, sellers and financiers.”

And the market may trend more toward these types of acquisitions, Weiss adds.

"The story of the market's availability of relatively inexpensive debt and equity capital, and the interest in the hospitality real estate sector from a multitude of capital and financing sources, public and private, and foreign and domestic, are leading to near high-water mark volume in terms of number of assets transacted and total dollars transacted in a calendar year,” he says. “There are also many hotels and portfolios coming to market on a daily basis with strong interest in all hotel asset classes and in a wide variety of market types. This year, as many projected, is shaping up to be a banner year for hotel transactions."

In announcing the deal, Moody said Thursday that it was subject to closing conditions, and cautioned that there was no assurance of it being finalized on the agreed-to terms.