BOSTON—The Davis Companies president Richard McCready says the firm has for some time considered entering the hotel sector, but not until now had a property become available that met all its investment criteria.

McCready tells Globest.com that its purchase of the 344-key Hilton hotel in Woburn with partner Rubicon Companies is Davis' first acquisition of a hotel asset. The property was acquired by a newly established Davis Cos. fund (Davis Investment Ventures Fund III) for a reported price of $32.1 million and Davis now plans a rather extensive $15-million renovation of the property beginning in late 2016.

"We have looked at a lot of hotel properties over the years but we have a pretty high bar in what we would invest in and it had to be something that fit our investment profile, which is basically taking what we consider to be a very well located asset that we can see repositioning, re-envisioning and creating value," he says.

The Woburn Hilton, he adds is a well-located asset in the Boston-based company's "back yard." The firm has confidence that its partners Rubicon and hotelier Robin Brown of Spot On Ventures will hellp successfully complete needed upgrades to the property that will heighten its value.

McCready said that the $15 million in upgrades are necessary to bring the hotel up to Hilton standards. He adds that his firm and partners have worked with Hilton on the details of the capital improvement initiative.

The entrance into the hotel sector should not be viewed as a new division or asset class for Davis' portfolio. The company currently owns a real estate portfolio of approximately 12 million square feet of space across the Eastern United States. The company's portfolio features a mix of office, retail, industrial, multifamily and healthcare/bioscience properties.

"I think we will continue to look at hotels as any other asset class we look at," he tells Globest.com, "but we do not have any broader plan to acquire hotels right now."

In addition to its planned physical improvements to the property, including extensive work on the hotel lobby, McCready says the new ownership will revamp the property's marketing strategy to secure more corporate, group and event business at the hotel.