Downtown Cleveland hotel sells for $28.2 million

As reported by Stan Bullard at CrainsCleveland, the downtown Hilton Garden Inn Cleveland hotel was sold to MCR, a Dallas and New York City based hotel company. H&LA’s David Sangree got the opportunity to weigh in on the $28 million sale.

Published by: Stan Bullard/Crain’s Cleveland
Published date: December 2019

The Hilton Garden Inn Downtown Cleveland, 1100 Carnegie Ave., was acquired by MCR, a fast-growing hotel company based in Dallas and New York City, becoming the company’s 86th hotel, according to a news release issued Monday, Dec. 16.

MCR paid $28.2 million on Dec. 9 for the 240-room, full-service hotel with a meeting and event center, according to Cuyahoga County land records. The seller, New York City-based Hotel 1100 Carnegie LP, paid $16.6 million for the property in June 2015.

A spokesman said it’s the company’s first investment in Northeast Ohio.

The latest sale price is eye-catching given the seller’s acquisition price.

David Sangree, president of Hotel & Leisure Advisors, said in a phone interview, “It’s a pretty respectable number for downtown Cleveland and shows the market is holding up.”

However, Sangree added such a property would command a higher price in most other cities.

MCR describes itself as the nation’s fifth-largest hotel owner-operator, with a $3 billion portfolio and 15,000 guest rooms. It is a real estate investment trust, but is not publicly traded. The company dates from 2006 and employs 3,600.

Dating from 2000, the hotel has weathered some major fiscal woes.

The seller, 1100 Carnegie Hotel, is an affiliate of Starwood Capital Group of Miami Beach, Fla., a private investment fund that has had an outsized influence on the hotel business for decades.

The Starwood affiliate purchased the property from LNR Capital Corp. of Miami Beach, Fla., which was the special servicer on a securitized loan that went through foreclosure. The loan, which carried the name JPMCC 2006 LDP7, was for $18 million and had been taken out by the developer of the hotel, 1100 Carnegie LLC of Cleveland.

Although the hotel did not open until 2000, it was one four hotels developed during a 1990s hotel boom. It was also designed to capitalize on proximity to Progressive Field and Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse when those venues opened under other names in 1994.

Although it’s almost catty-corner from the ballpark, the challenge for the hotel is its location on the southern edge of downtown. It’s slightly removed from the city’s primary business districts, but still within walking distance of them, including the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland.

MCR’s news release, perhaps playfully because of the impending holidays, emphasized the property’s proximity to the “A Christmas Story” house in Tremont, which pays homage to the movie of the same name.

MCR’s release said, “The Hilton Garden Inn — we triple dog dare you to find a better place to stay — lies just a short drive from the home where the 1983 yuletide classic ‘A Christmas Story’ was filmed.”