ARLINGTON, VA— MeriStar Hospitality Corp. here has completed the sale of four hotels with a total of 826 rooms to two separate buyers for aggregate gross proceeds of $33.9 million. The four hotels shed by the REIT include: the 262-room Jekyll Inn on Jekyll Island, GA; the 215-room Holiday Inn Select – Bucks County in Trevose, PA; the 150-room Ramada Plaza Hotel Meriden in Meriden, CT; and the 199-room Westin Morristown in Morristown, NJ. The company also revealed it has withdrawn eights assets from its original list of hotels planned for disposition. The eight hotels— comprising 1,818 rooms— were projected to generate $105 million – $115 million in gross proceeds. “Given that we are in the early stages of an economic recovery and our liquidity position has greatly improved with our recent capital markets transactions, we re-evaluated our asset disposition program and decided to retain eight of the hotels previously marketed for sale,” said MeriStar Chairman/CEO Paul Whetsell. “These hotels generate stronger levels of cash flow than the average of the ones we are selling, and we believe we currently will benefit from holding these properties. “We have 16 assets, with 4,131 rooms, remaining in our disposition program, and we expect to substantially complete the program by the end of the first quarter,” Whetsell added. “The disposition of the 16 [remaining]hotels should generate total gross proceeds of $110 million – $130 million,” he offered. MeriStar Hospitality Corp. currently owns 89 principally upscale, full-service hotels in major markets and resort locations, offering up 24,169 rooms in 23 states, the District of Columbia and Canada. Since January 2003, the company has sold 18 hotels with 3,412 rooms, for total gross proceeds of $156.3 million, or approximately $46,000 per room.
