Ashford Hospitality Selling Ritz-Carlton Atlanta, 11 Other Hotels

Monty Bennett’s Ashford Hospitality Trust is offering the Ritz-Carlton Atlanta, the 26-story Hilton Boston Back Bay and 10 other hotels for sale.

The Dallas-based hotel owner put 12 hotels on the market in Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Utah. None are in Texas.

Ashford doesn’t expect to find buyers for all 12, but it is feeling out the market “to determine which assets are capturing the most attractive valuations and providing sufficient proceeds levels above allocated debt balances and mortgage release prices,” according to a news release.

It is part of a plan to raise money to pay off financing that has a maturity date of January 2026 and to deleverage its balance sheet, the release states.

“This plan includes raising sufficient capital through a combination of asset sales, mortgage debt refinancings, and non-traded preferred capital raising,” the release states.

The move comes as the firm is dealing with distress by giving back properties to lenders, selling them off or refinancing. Ashford made plans in July to surrender 19 hotels to lenders and has been on a selling spree since then.

Ashford is working with lenders to refinance a loan secured by the 673-key Renaissance Nashville, which is the third-largest hotel in Nashville.

“The company believes there could be substantial excess proceeds from the refinancing of the Renaissance Nashville loan, which can be used to pay down the company’s strategic financing,” the news release states.

It is also trying to work out a Morgan Stanley pool loan backed by 17 hotels, plus loans secured by the Marriott Gateway in Arlington, Virginia, and the Indigo Atlanta.

The hotels for sale comprise 2,689 keys. The Ritz-Carlton Atlanta opened in 1984 and has 444 keys. The 390-key Hilton Boston Back Bay was built in 1982 and renovated in 2018.

Other hotels in the offering include the 350-room Residence Inn Sea World Orlando in Florida, and the 86-room Hampton Inn Lawrenceville in Georgia.

Ashford reported $3.6 billion in debt, including $3.3 billion of variable-rate debt, in a Sept. 30 SEC filing, the Dallas Business Journal reported.

—Rachel Stone