Cash-strapped hotel owners are selling properties at discounts and agreeing to sky-high interest rates with federal aid about to end.
The desperate moves are mostly by small or private hotel owners, though some real estate investment trusts are also feeling the pinch, the Wall Street Journal reports.
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Chicago-based Watermark Lodging Trust sold Hutton Hotel in Nashville for $70 million, despite the property being valued at $90 million to $100 million. The REIT also raised $200 million from Ascendant Capital Partners and Oaktree Capital Management, agreeing to a 12 percent annual dividend.
Other discount trades include Sunstone Hotel Investors selling Renaissance Harborplace hotel in Baltimore for $80 million — 20 percent off its pre-pandemic value.
Playa Hotels & Resorts NV sold two Jamaica properties for $60 million, a 30 percent discount. The properties were Jewel Dunn’s River Beach Resort & Spa and the Jewel Runaway Bay Beach Resort & Waterpark.
The Paycheck Protection Program covered many hotels’ payroll and other expenses for a while, but ran out before their customers returned.
Meanwhile, lawmakers are contemplating a litany of potential relief measures. Senate Republicans on Monday proposed replenishing the PPP and expanding liability protections. A bill expected to be introduced Wednesday would create a government-backed vehicle to help commercial property owners make mortgage payments and prop up the commercial mortgage-backed securities market, the Journal reported. [WSJ] — Erin Hudson