Goldman Sachs nixes $1.7B hotel sale to Moody National

From the New York website: Goldman Sachs opted out of a deal to sell 149 U.S. hotels to Moody National, for $1.73 billion.

An increase in funding costs is to blame for the decision, according to a spokesperson from Moody National REIT I, a non-traded real estate investment fund. The potential acquisition deal was disclosed in a regulatory filing in May. The seller wasn’t disclosed at that time.

The hotels were part of a portfolio controlled by Goldman Sachs’ Whitehall real estate unit. It mostly comprised of properties purchased for $1.2 billion from the family of motel operator Gary Tharaldson in 2006, according to two people with knowledge of the transaction, Bloomberg News reported.

It would have been Houston-based Moody National’s largest purchase in its four-year history. A completed deal would have raised the company’s assets under management to $2.5 billion. [Bloomberg] – Ariel Stulberg