[Boku]

Originally Posted by reparcsyks

Can't access the article - is this the Sheraton by the Parkway? Hope they reclad it if they're going to renovate, but that doesn't sound doable for $28 million.

Here's the article:

Cambridge Landmark paid $77.4 million to buy the former Sheraton Downtown Philadelphia and, in a sale-lease back transaction, sold the property to Net Lease Capital Advisors.

The company plans a $28 million renovation to guest rooms and other public spaces in an attempt to bring Philadelphia’s second largest hotel back to its star status in what is an increasingly competitive hotel environment.

The former Sheraton at 201 N. 17th St. has 757 rooms and 58,000 square feet of event space. It was bought from Blackstone Group and a new franchise agreement was signed with Marriott International to regain use of the Sheraton brand. The hotel is being branded as Philadelphia 201. Interstate Hotels and Resorts, a third-party hotel management company, will continue to manage and operate the property.

Built in 1980, the hotel is located two blocks from the Pennsylvania Convention Center and was once known as the Wyndham Franklin Plaza. It has had various owners over the years including Patriot American Hospitality Inc., which was a high-flying real estate investment trust in the 1990s that was then aggressively spending on acquisitions.

In 1998, it bought Wyndham Hotel Corp. and inherited the Philadelphia hotel through that acquisition. By 1999, American Patriot Hospitality was over-leveraged and was bailed out that year by entities affiliated with Apollo Real Estate Advisors. The company’s name was then changed to Wyndham International Inc.

Blackstone entered the scene in 2005 when it arranged a transaction valued at $3.2 billion to buy Wyndham International Inc. Blackstone then turned around and sold a portion of the Wyndham portfolio to Columbia Sussex. Then in 2010, Blackstone Group bought the debt backed by 14 hotels sold to Columbia Sussex and regained control of the properties, including the Sheraton, which was part of that portfolio.

The most recent transaction involved Cambridge Landmark, based in Miami, Fla., which invests in hospitality real estate. Net Lease is headquartered in Nashua, N.H., and is a real estate investment and advisory firm.