Fortress Buys Heavily Discounted O’Hare Hotel from Clarion

Clarion Partners is checking out of the Westin O’Hare at a heavy loss, but the deal signals that the airport-area hotel market might finally be clawing its way out of basement pricing.

New York-based Fortress Investment Group, a firm with a well-earned reputation for bottom-feeding in the deep end of the distressed property pool, paid $50 million to buy the 525-key hotel at 6100 North River Road in Rosemont, according to public property records.

The price represents a staggering 39 percent haircut from the $82 million Clarion paid for the property in 2015. At that time, the seller, Clearview Hotel Capital, executed a textbook “buy low, sell high” play, offloading the hotel after a major renovation during a suburban hospitality pricing peak. For Clarion, however, the investment ended in a $32 million evaporation of value.

Yet in the context of the post-pandemic recovery, Fortress’ $95,000-per-key basis actually looks like a sign of stabilizing hospitality near O’Hare International.

The deal shows how far the market has traveled since the darker days of late 2024. That’s when New York-based MCR Hotels swooped in to buy the 1,005-key Hyatt Regency O’Hare for a mere $44 million. MCR’s deal, which closed at roughly $40,000 per room, highlighted the sheer desperation of the jumbo hotel sector at the time. By comparison, Fortress is paying more than double that per-key rate for the Westin, suggesting a renewed confidence in the full-service suburban model.

Fortress declined to comment, and Clarion didn’t return a request for comment Monday.

Fortress still has plenty of runway to chase the higher property values seen elsewhere in the submarket. Earlier in 2024, the 183-key Courtyard by Marriott Chicago O’Hare in Des Plaines, near the Rivers Casino, traded for $19.2 million, or roughly $105,000 per room. Furthermore, a 752-room Westin-branded hotel on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago sold in November to investor Ketu Amin for $72 million, or about $95,000 per room, down from its last price of $156 million, or more than $207,400 per room, achieved in 2018.

Fortress appears to be betting it can bridge the gap between the distressed pricing coming out of the pandemic, and the more premium valuations commanded previously.

The Westin remains a critical piece of the Rosemont puzzle, sitting just a stone’s throw from the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, as well as shopping and dining at the Fashion Outlets of Chicago.