Wyndham To Buy 11 Ramada Hotels

A group of investors led by Wyndham Garden Hotels, a division of Dallas-based Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, said they agreed to buy 11 hotels from Ramada Hotel Operating Co. for $116 million.

The properties will be turned into Wyndham-style garden hotels. Wyndham and its partners will spend an additional $14 million to convert and upgrade the hotels, said Mack Koonce, Wyndham’s senior vice president of marketing.

Ramada, acquired early this year by New World Hotels Ltd. of Hong Kong, had built the 11 properties as prototypes of its new development program, Koonce said.

The hotels are in San Diego, San Jose, Phoenix, Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, Nashville, and Atlanta. Koonce said the hotels have an average of 170 rooms, representing an investment of about $70,000 per room.

The acquisition will be completed through a joint venture between a unit of Japan’s Yasuda Trust & Banking Co., Wyndham and other Japanese investors who were not identified. Koonce did not disclose each partner’s investment.

“These hotels closely fit the Wyndham Garden Hotel concept: properties that are designed as smaller, conveniently located, upscale suburban hotels created to meet the needs of the business traveler,” said Les Bentley, president of Wyndham Garden Hotels.

When completed, the acquisition will bring the number of Wyndham Garden Hotels to 17.