Blackstone Group LP, famous private equity firm, is planning to sell The London West Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles
According to Businessweek, The London West Hollywood Hotel is a part of Blackstone's LXR Luxury Resorts and Hotels Unit. It spent around $50 million on the hotel's renovation. The company has hired real estate firm, Eastdil Secured, to broker the hotel. A possible or expected listing price was not quoted by the company.
"We've owned this asset for a number of years. We've invested in it, it's performing well," Jonathan Gray, global real estate head of Blackstone, said in an interview with Bloomberg.
"We believed in the lodging recovery during the downturn and we continue to believe in the lodging recovery and always look for opportunities to invest. Lodging went through a pretty sharp downturn and a number of assets got into financial trouble. That created opportunities to buy hotels," he added.
During the past few years of economic and real estate gloom, the commercial hotel industry took a back seat. The traveler accommodation industry struggled during 2009-10. However, the conditions were not as bad as they looked. The industry managed to keep afloat.
According to NBC, the sector was the least recession hit industry. The percentage change in sales that the hotel industry recorded was around -0.23 percent, which was a lot lesser than other sectors like the publishing and construction material industries
Currently, the lodging recovery has been holding steady even in the volatile and unpredictable economic scenario. According to the data accumulated by Hotelmarketing.com, the occupancy rates in hotels recorded an average of 61.4 percent in 2012, the highest in 15 years.
A blog by the HMG Hotels, a leading hotel management company in California, stated that for 2013, the growth in lodging has exceeded predictions. The tremendous growth can be attributed to the increase in leisure and international travel, increase in household incomes and education as well.
The positive signs and optimistic outlook will take the lodging industry to new highs. The industry has been and will be a consistent and sustainable sector in the coming times.