Wheelock Street Capital has acquired 15 hotels in two separate transactions, buying 12 select-service hotels from an affiliate of Inland American Real Estate Trust and revealing itself as the buyer of the three hotels sold by Sunstone Hotel Investors earlier this month.
Assumed CMBS loans as well as newly originated senior financing provided by GE Capital were used to finance the first transaction, made for $116 million. Out of the 12 hotels, five will be operated by North Central Group and the remaining by McKibbon Hotel Management under a management contract.Wheelock also disclosed it was the buyer of the 229-room Doubletree Guest Suites Minneapolis, the 257-room Hilton Del Mar, and the 350-room Marriott Troy, the sale of which was announced earlier this month by Sunstone. Sage Hospitality has been chosen to manage the first two properties, whilst Marriott will continue to operate the third.In total Wheelock has paid a sum of $221 million for the 15 acquisitions. “Wheelock will invest in additional capital upgrades across both portfolios to position the assets to benefit from a favorable fundamental backdrop and high quality brand affiliations,” said Jonathan Paul, managing partner and co-founder of Wheelock. The privately-held firm is currently creating its third fund, a multi-investor discretionary opportunity fund consisting of US$525 million of committed capital; its first two funds had been primarily funded by a single private institutional investor.Earlier this year Wheelock also acquired the Marriott Pleasanton and the DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Houston by the Galleria, thus the new acquisitions raise its portfolio of hotel properties acquired thus far this year to 17, representing 3,101 rooms. Between 2009 and 2011, the real estate investment firm acquired eleven hotels.
