Blackstone picks up Hersha’s Long Island hotels as part of $217M deal

Blackstone Real Estate Advisors, an affiliate of private equity heavyweight Blackstone Group, reached an agreement with real estate investment trust Hersha Hospitality Trust to acquire 16 U.S. hotels for $217 million.

The portfolio of hotel properties, located primarily in the northeastern U.S., are valued at roughly $125,000 per room in the deal, which is slated to close in the first quarter of 2014.

The real estate acquisition marks the second for a Blackstone affiliate in only two days.

For Hersha, the sale completes an exit from the suburban Philadelphia and Long Island markets, Law360 reported. The REIT will use the proceeds to pay back roughly $79 million in outstanding debt.

“The anticipated sale of these noncore portfolio hotels completes our transformation into a pure play, urban transient portfolio with exposure to some of the highest demand gateway markets in the U.S.,” Hersha CEO Jay H. Shah said in a statement.

Hersha, which currently owns a portfolio of 48 hotels in the U.S., primarily located in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Miami and a handful of West Coast cities, inked a $93 million deal for a pair of Miami and San Diego hotels in May. [Law360] — Julie Strickland