Firms partner to buy Marriott hotel

A joint venture between a New York-based real estate investment/development firm and a global insurance and investment organization has purchased the Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport, the buyer announced last week.

Specific financial details were not disclosed, but the selling price was “north of $100 million” said Chad Cooley, a principal in privately held AWH Partners LLC, in an interview Tuesday.

AWH Partners and Starr Cos., an insurance and investment company with a presence on five continents, acquired the 488-room hotel on North Hollywood Way from Westbrook Partners last month.

“We’re just very excited to be in Southern California,” Cooley said. “It’s a big moment for our company.”

AWH Partners’ hotel management company, Spire Hospitality, a Chicago-based third-party operator of hotels including Hilton Hotels & Resorts, InterContinental Hotels Group and Marriott International will operate the property under a franchise agreement with Marriott Hotels, according to a company statement last week.

The purchase pushes AWH Partners past the half-billion-dollar mark in hospitality investments over the past three years. The company is also managing or has completed hotel redevelopment projects totaling more than $165 million.

Scott Hall, a managing director at HFF, which marketed the property for the seller, said in a statement that the deal “represented a unique opportunity for the buyer to benefit from the asset’s strong and continuously improving performance following our client’s strategic capital improvements.”

Jon Rosenfeld, another principal with AWH Partners, said in a statement last week that the Burbank venture is the company’s first, full-service Marriott.

“We are proud to grow our relationship with the brand family,” Rosenfeld said.

Cooley said the company is “planting a flag” with the Burbank property after looking for about five years to break into the regional market. He said part of what attracted the firm to Burbank was the activity around Bob Hope Airport, adjacent to the property.

“What we saw going on at the Burbank airport was a lot of demand,” Cooley said, citing the recently built transportation center at the airfield as an example the types of things they looked at.

“Those aren’t demand drivers that get built every day,” he added.

Cooley said the company plans to complete the remainder of an ongoing $13.5-million renovation at the hotel and convention center, located at 2500 N. Hollywood Way, within the next 12 months.

He said the company will also explore options for further development on the property, with an eye toward “value creation,” though he said he and his partners were still in the idea-development stage.

“We essentially buy with the intent of improving things,” he said.