American Realty Capital Hospitality Trust has entered into an agreement to acquire the Equity Inns lodging portfolio for an expected purchase price of $1.925 billion from subsidiaries of W2007 Grace I and WNT Holdings, each of which are indirectly owned by one or more Whitehall Real Estate Funds, real estate private equity funds sponsored by The Goldman Sachs Group. The portfolio, which consists of 126 hotels totaling 14,934 rooms across 35 U.S. states, is franchised by global hotel brands including Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Marriott International, Hyatt Hotels, and InterContinental Hotels Group. It encompasses a number of well-known hotel flags, including Hampton Inn, Hilton Garden Inn, Homewood Suites, Embassy Suites, Courtyard, Residence Inn, Hyatt Place, and Holiday Inn. The acquisition of Equity Inns, when completed, will increase ARC Hospitality’s lodging portfolio to 132 hotels totaling 16,115 rooms, establishing ARC Hospitality as one of the largest owners of select-service hotels (by enterprise value) in the North American lodging REIT sector. The closing of the acquisition is subject to customary franchisor and lender approvals as well as other usual closing conditions and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2014. Read more over at MarketWatch.
