Highgate Sells La Quinta To JAMP

A Loop hotel traded hands for $30.5 million last week as seller Highgate Hotels looks to offload properties in a $1.5 billion portfolio that the company took over in 2021.

A venture of New York-based hospitality company Highgate and private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management acquired the CorePoint Lodging Incorporated real estate investment trust in 2021. The REIT consisted mostly of La Quinta-branded hotels with a total value of $1.5 billion. The venture took out a $625 million loan against 29 La Quinta properties in 2023. The debt was originated by Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs and sold off on the commercial mortgage-backed bond market.

The loan was set to mature in March 2025, according to CMBS tracking service Morningstar, but had been moved to special servicing the month prior due to “imminent monetary default,” according to public documents and servicer commentary. Since then, the borrowers have sold off 14 of the hotels in the portfolio to help “pay advances, interest, and pay down principal,” Morningstar noted.

JAMP Hotels, a hospitality firm led by Wisconsin-based CEO Jaymin Patel, jumped on the opportunity to take over the 239-room Chicago La Quinta property at 1 South Franklin Street. The property also includes two groundfloor restaurant spaces occupied by long-term leases.

JAMP is led by four brothers, Jaymin, Lal, Mahesh and Rupesh Patel. The company owns and operates about two dozen hotels in Chicagoland, Wisconsin and Minnesota, according to its website. The company plans to invest in revamping the La Quinta’s amenities, Jaymin Patel said.

Jaymin Patel said they are eager to expand their presence in the Loop.

“We have been in the industry for a long time and we believe very strongly in the future of Chicago’s downtown,” he said.

Chicago’s hospitality sector took a hit during the pandemic but tourism numbers in recent years have shown promise. The city hosted a record number of tourists last summer. In June, July and August of 2025, visitors filled 3.6 million room nights downtown, which was about 4 percent higher than 2024 and higher than the city’s pre-pandemic record set in 2019, according to the city of Chicago.

“Chicago has always remained a premier business and tourist destination. … And after Covid its bouncing back,” Jaymin Patel said.

Still, some hotel owners have offloaded properties for a discount in recent months.

Last month, Vinayaka Hospitality acquired the South Loop’s 355-key Blackstone hotel from Fundamental Advisors and Sage Hospitality Group. The 23-story Blackstone Hotel has hosted a dozen presidents over its century-plus in business, earning the nickname “Hotel of Presidents,” and it is an official Chicago landmark.

New York-based Fundamental Advisors and Denver-based Sage acquired the building for $59.5 million in 2016, and the duo tried multiple times to offload the property. Chicago-based Vinayaka snagged the property for $16.5 million less than the 2016 purchase price, or about a 28 percent discount.

The sales come in the middle of a substantial push from the Chicago tourism board to juice its hospitality sector via a 1.5 percent surcharge. The added tax is intended to double the budget of tourism agency Choose Chicago, and was self-imposed by downtown hotel owners.