Rockpoint, Highgate Refinance Boston Harbor Hotel

Rockpoint, Highgate and hotelAVE landed a $115 million financing package for the Renaissance Boston Seaport Hotel at 606 Congress Street, the Commercial Observer reported. Barings provided the financing, which was arranged by Eastdil Secured.

The 471-room luxury hotel, located on the edge of Boston Harbor, is in the midst of a major renovation. Amenities at the property include a corporate meeting space, a ballroom, a club lounge, a fitness center and an indoor pool. The hotel opened in 2008 and assumed its current ownership in 2015, with hotelAVE serving as asset manager.

In prepared remarks, Barings managing director Jonathan Neff pointed to the location — close to tourist attractions such as South Boston Maritime Park, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston’s Children’s Museum, and the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center — and the fundamentals of the hotel market as reasons for providing the financing.

The Marriott-branded property was recently in the news for a different reason. In September, the hotel was one of several where workers walked off the job as part of a series of hotel strikes across the country, according to Hotel Dive. Hotel workers have been negotiating for wages that keep up with the cost of living, safer working conditions and a reversal of pandemic-era headcount cuts.

Boston’s hotels are performing well, aided by a lack of new supply on the market. As of October, the moving average revenue per available room in the city over the previous 12 months was $172, according to a December report prepared by Wronka, Ltd.

“A contraction in supply over the first nine months of 2024 has decreased the number of available rooms in the market each night due to hotels being temporarily converted to shelters to house migrants,” the report read. “This decline further supports higher occupancies in the market as there are fewer rooms to sell each night.”

Occupancy is expected to continue rising as corporate travel regains momentum, according to the report.

— Holden Walter-Warner