Dow Hotel Co. Adds Lake Oswego Property

LAKE OSWEGO, OR-Dow Hotel Co., a Seattle, WA-based hotel investment and management firm has acquired the 161-room Crowne Plaza Lake Oswego here in a joint venture with New Jersey-based Prudential Real Estate Investors.

Completed in 1989, the six-story hotel is located at the confluence of Interstate 5 and Highway 217, two miles from Washington Square Mall and seven miles from Downtown Portland. Property amenities include 4,000 sf of meeting space, a restaurant and indoor and outdoor swimming pools.

According to the joint venture agreement, DHC will manage the asset and complete more than $1 million in renovations, including a complete makeover of the lobby, restaurant and lounge. The parties involved did not reveal the acquisition price and Multnomah County did not yet have the information available for public consumption, but local brokers familiar with the transaction say the property sold for “under $10 million.” The last time the hotel changed hands, in 1998, it sold for $21.5 million, according to county records.

Local hotel broker Ed Dundon, who did not handle this transaction, declined to confirm the sale price but did acknowledge that many hotels are selling at 50% to 60% of what they sold for five years ago. “Hotel assets have been beaten up pretty badly as a result of the recessions,” Dundon tells GlobeSt.com.

Dundon adds that hotels are perceived as assets that will perform well in a recovering economy, and there is a lot of private capital interested in acquiring hotel assets now that a recovery looks imminent. “Consequently, there’s a fair amount of competition for hotel assets,” he says. “It’s a good time to sell.”

Dow seeks to acquire or co-invest with joint venture partners in mid- to large-size, institutional-grade and full-service hotels, especially those that have extensive food and beverage capabilities. Dow Hotel Co. president Murray Dow says the Crowne Plaza Lake Oswego is the company’s first property in the Northwest and the third property added to the company’s portfolio in the past 16 months.

“This hotel is especially significant to me because I was born and raised in Portland and began my career at the Benson Hotel under the guidance of one of the region’s most respected hoteliers, Basil Miaullis,” says Dow. “His mentoring so impacted my life that our company has named four of our signature restaurants Basil’s Bar & Kitchen in his honor.”

In June, PREI handed Dow its seventh hotel management assignment, the 420-room Sheraton North Houston Hotel at George Bush Intercontinental Airport. At that time, Dow said he has the infrastructure in place to double the size of the company’s portfolio to 15 properties over the next two years.