Hotel Roger Williams (source: PropertyShark)
Update (1:50 p.m.) JRK Hotel Group has sold the 193-room Hotel Roger Williams, at 131 Madison Avenue, to LaSalle Hotel Properties. LaSalle acquired the hotel’s leasehold interest for $90 million, along
with around $4.5 million in other costs, said Kenneth Fuller, vice president of finance with LaSalle, who noted that the deal closed yesterday. JRK, who acquired the property on the corner of 31st Street in 2003, will retain management of the hotel.
A statement from JRK did not disclose why it chose to sell the property. The recently renovated hotel includes 15 rooms with garden terraces and a full-service concierge. The sale has not yet been recorded with the city.
Fuller said that the deal was not marketed and that LaSalle learned of the opportunity “through [its] relationships.” LaSalle is a real estate investment trust with 34 full-service hotels and resorts in 11 states and the District of Columbia, including Gild Hall, an 126-room hotel at 15 Gold Street in the Financial District.
Fuller noted that the property’s 6.4 percent cap rate made it an attractive offer to his company.
“To get that kind of yield at the beginning of an up cycle in New York City looks like a really good deal to us,” Fuller said.
Representatives from JRK, a Los Angeles-based hotelier, owns two “Oceana” hotels — one in Santa Monica, one in Santa Barbara — and a Holiday Inn Express in Nashville, Tenn., were not immediately available for comment.