Ashford Hospitality Trust To Acquire Sheraton Hotel In Philadelphia For $16.7M

DALLAS- Ashford Hospitality Trust has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the 187-room Sheraton Bucks County and an adjacent 56,000-square foot office building in suburban Philadelphia for $16.7 million in cash. The acquisition is expected to close in April 2004. Remington Lodging & Hospitality, L.P. will manage the property. Ashford is actively seeking a buyer for the office building. The purchase price equates to a 7.6 trailing twelve month EBITDA multiple including the office building and a trailing twelve month EBITDA multiple below 6.5 after the planned sale of the office building. Located near I-95, Route 1 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the Sheraton Bucks County is adjacent to the Sesame Street Place Theme Park, the Oxford Valley Mall, and the Frankford Bucks Hospital. The hotel features 12,000 square feet of meeting space, a restaurant, a lobby bar and an exercise facility. Ashford will immediately invest approximately $5.65 million in the hotel to conform to the Starwood Property Improvement Plan. Full guestroom and bath renovation, common area upgrades throughout the hotel, a complete restaurant renovation, meeting room updates and an exercise facility upgrade will occur in three phases and are expected to be completed by the end of 2005. “We believe that a complete renovation of this full-service property will enable this asset to further outperform other hotels in the market,” said Monty Bennett, president/CEO of Ashford.