Dallas REIT Selling 891-Room, Star-Studded Hotel Portfolio

An industry source says the portfolio, owned for seven years by WW Lodging Inc., is a guaranteed "north of $200,000" per key sale. Travelers know the properties well: the 325-room Best Western Lake Buena Vista at 2000 Hotel Plaza Blvd. in Lake Buena Vista, FL; 355-room Radisson Fisherman's Wharf at 250 Beach St. and 45,000 sf of abutting waterfront retail; and 211-room Hilton Harbor Island at 1960 Harbor Island Dr. in San Diego. And if the hotels weren't all tied to ground leases, the seller would be looking at a bare minimum of $250,000 per key for two of the three hotels, based on the price of the dirt alone, the source tells GlobeSt.com.

"The key is the irreplaceable real estate they're sitting on, particularly Orlando and San Francisco," the hotel expert says, adding the Harbor Island hotel is difficult to access, but it's still San Diego. "There really isn't a dog there," the hotel broker assesses. "They are interesting properties and all very different."

The source says the ground leases will automatically eliminate one-third, maybe half, of the buying field because it creates a financing hurdle. "It depends on how cooperative the landlords are," he adds. But in the big picture, he stresses "the only wrinkle is the leases."

Nonetheless, each ground lease has a 40-year minimum left on the term, according to a contact for the Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels team from Los Angeles that was hired to run the sale. To add more bling to the deal, the portfolio is "free and clear of management encumbrances," says John Strauss, senior vice president for Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, who's partnering with managing director Arthur Buser to market the package. As a result, the door is wide open for hotel operators to be part of the feeding frenzy for the hospitality bait.

The brokers' contact says confidentiality agreements were e-mailed Monday, with follow-up calls beginning yesterday. A date for the call for offers has yet to be set.

The contact confirms the REIT's structuring requires a lock, stock and barrel sale. Renovations and a portfolio occupancy exceeding 70% for at least four years further bolster the run at the market. Lake Buena Vista and Harbor Island, both developed in 1971, underwent extensive renovations in 2003 and 2000, respectively. The Fisherman's Wharf hotel and adjoining retail, built in 1969, were overhauled in 2000. As for the flags, the contact says the Hilton branding is subject to a franchise pact while the Best Western and Radisson pacts can be terminated at the new owner's demand.