Jay Shah, CEO of Hersha Hospitality, and the Courtyard Miami Beach Oceanfront hotel

Hersha Hospitality Trust is buying the Courtyard Miami Beach Oceanfront hotel for $95 million. “With minimal new supply, multiple transient demand generators and the continued strength of international travel, we anticipate strong growth for this hotel and this market for the foreseeable future,” said Hersha CEO Jay Shah. The 263-unit hotel is the company’s first purchase in the city, and the only remaining Marriott hotel in Miami Beach.

As The Real Deal previously reported, Hersha has been beefing up its New York assets, too, ramping up the company’s focus on New York City hotels. [more]

From left: Jay Shah, CEO of Hersha Hospitality, a 2010 rendering of the Hyatt Union Square and Sam Chang of McSam Hotel Group

[Updated 10:54 a.m., June 30, with comments from Ashish Parikh, Hersha’s CFO]
Hersha Hospitality Trust said it agreed to buy the stalled Hyatt Union Square hotel in Manhattan for $104.1 million, or $595,000 per key, from McSam Hotel Group.

The hotel, at 132 Fourth Avenue, between 12th and 13th streets, was originally conceived as a Gene Kaufman-designed hotel for developer Sam Chang, president and CEO of McSam Hotel Group, but was delayed for several years amid a partial stop work order and other construction related problems.  
Philadelphia-based Hersha said it will pay $36 million in cash, cancel a $10 million mezzanine loan that it made to the seller, plus interest, and assume two mortgage loans valued at $55 million. Hersha said the deal will close once construction is completed adding that it will not assume any construction or cost overrun risk as part of the deal.

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Sam Chang and the Holiday Inn Express at 126 Water Street

Hotelier Sam Chang has unloaded the Holiday Inn Express at 126 Water Street in Lower Manhattan for $36.7 million, Real Estate Weekly reported. The buyer was a subsidiary of Hersha Hospitality, for which this will be the 15th hotel in New York City. Chang, who runs the McSam Hotel Group, had purchased the property for $9.5 million in 2005 when it was a two-story retail and restaurant space. The 26-story, 112-room hotel that now stands in its place was completed during the summer of 2010, but by November, the property had been hit with a lis pendens, which marks the beginning of the foreclosure process. [REW] Comments

Brad Case, a vice president with the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts

From the April issue: Whle real estate investment trusts clearly have a lot of challenges right now, they have one key thing going for them that a lot of other investors don’t: access to capital. In this month’s Q&A, experts who track REITs told The Real Deal that the tremendous volatility the sector was experiencing a year ago is largely gone now. They said the biggest challenge REITs face today is finding worthwhile investments and paying down their debt. Some REITs, including Sam Zell’s Equity Residential, SL Green and Hersha Hospitality (see “Hersha’s New York play”) have already started picking up more property in New York. Others, like Simon Property Group and Westfield Group, are going head-to-head to take over bankrupt megamall operator and South Street Seaport owner General Growth Properties. Sources said they expect more REITs to start going after entire portfolios of properties (though not on the General Growth Properties scale) in the coming months. For more on which REIT sectors are faring best and worst and which REITs are most under- and overvalued, click here to turn to our panel of experts.

Hotel developer Sam Chang and 440 West 41st Street (building photo source: PropertyShark)

Hotel developer Sam Chang sold a 13-story Hell’s Kitchen building being operated quietly as a hotel to Israeli investors as part of a complex deal in which Hersha Hospitality Trust took title to a Chang hotel in Tribeca and wiped out nearly $20 million of his development loans.
Chang’s H Forty First Street LLC, sold the Hell’s Kitchen property at 440 West 41st Street for $17.5 million to a company owned by Israeli investors called US Suite on March 5, city property records published Monday show.
Although Chang sold the property March 5, he signed a sales contract Dec. 15 and ceded operations to US Suite on Dec. 22, when he signed over a net lease on the property, city records show. [more]

From left: Sam Chang and the three hotels at 343, 339 and 337 West 39th Street, respectively

Prolific hotel developer Sam Chang sold a trio of attached hotels south of Times Square to Pennsylvania-based hotel owner Hersha Hospitality Trust for $164.5 million.

The three buildings at 337, 339 and 343 West 39th Street, between Seventh and Eighth avenues, were constructed together, but operate under different flags.

All three properties went into contract in November and closed Feb. 9, city property records published today show.

Hersha Hospitality raised $110 million for the purchase of the 184-room Hampton Inn at 337 West 39th Street which sold for $55.9 million and the 188-room Candlewood Suites at 339 West 39th Street for $50.8 million.
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Hotel developer Sam Chang has finally lined up a buyer for his three-pack of budget hotels on West 39th Street, The Real Deal has learned. Chang and his company’s COO Gary Wisinski of McSam confirmed they have a deal in the works that’s set to close next month for the three hotels in one building with separate entrances at 337, 339 and 343 West 39th Street. Sources said the buyer is Hersha Hospitality, a Philadelphia-based, publicly traded REIT and an affiliate of the Hersha Trust, which has partnered with McSam before. Last year, Chang boasted to The Real Deal that he and all the Hersha Hospitality Management partners have similar large diamond rings and diamond-encrusted Rolexes. Chang denied Hersha is the buyer, but noted he has signed a strict confidentiality agreement related to the sale. [more]