Host Hotels Trades 454-Key DC Property for $128M

T2 Hospitality is taking its investments to the nation’s capital.

The California-based investment group acquired the Washington Marriott at Metro Center at 775 12th NW for $128 million, the Washington Business Journal reported. The seller was Host Hotels & Resorts, which is based in nearby Bethesda, Maryland.

The transaction works out to approximately $280,000 per key, on top of additional costs for furniture and equipment that could be included in the deal.

The 454-key property is one of the area’s 20 largest hotels, according to the Business Journal. In addition to its hundreds of rooms, it also has 13,000 square feet of event space.

An affiliate of Host appeared to lend the buyer $114 million to complete the sale. None of the parties involved in the transaction commented to the outlet on the deal.

Last year, Host renovated several aspects of the property, including guest rooms, the lobby, the fitness center and the indoor pool. It also added a restaurant, the Spotted Zebra.

This appears to be T2’s first acquisition in the nation’s capital, according to Bisnow. The firm is part of the Tarsadia alliance of investment, management and development companies. The company owns 13 hotels, a dozen of which are in California; the outlier before this acquisition was in Denver, though it’s also making inroads in Florida.

The sale represents the disposition of a long-held property for Host. Its affiliate owned the property for more than three decades, dating back to immediately after Host Marriott became an ownership entity and Marriott International became a management entity; Host morphed into a real estate investment trust in 1999.

The REIT owned 80 hotels across the nation, including five in D.C., as of the end of June. But the firm appeared interested in slimming down after it was reported at the start of the year to be looking to sell a double-digit-sized portfolio valued above $1 billion.

This is one of the largest D.C. hotel sales of the year so far. In February, DiamondRock Hospitality sold The Westin Washington for $92 million.

— Holden Walter-Warner