NEW YORK? Starwood Hotels & Resorts late last month boosted its Four Points by Sheraton portfolio by 10%, bringing its property count to 132 in a co-branding deal with Barcelo Hotels USA, an affiliate of Barcelo Hospitality USA. The deal, first reported in HOTEL BUSINESS? Oct. 21 1999, closed at midnight April 27 with Barcelo completing its $325 million acquisition of 16 Wyndham and Wyndham Garden hotels, part of the Bedrock portfolio owned by Dallas-based private equity firm Hampstead Group LLC. These properties were reflagged immediately? 13 as mid-scale Four Points; one as a Sheraton? via a master management contract with Starwood. Two airport properties in Chicago and Detroit, where Starwood had impact issues, were converted to Clarions, an upscale brand of Choice Hotels International. Another property in the Bedrock portfolio? the boutique-style Wyndham Checkers in Los Angeles? was not part of the sale; it went to hotel owner/operator Tarsadia in Costa Mesa, CA, which reportedly will operate the property as a Wyndham franchise. ?This acquisition of the portfolio represents a major step for us,? said Charles Scott, director/president of Barcelo Hospitality USA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Barcelo Empresas, Spain?s third largest hotel/travel firm. ?We?ve operated two hotels (Radisson franchises) for several years in Orlando, FL, and Washington, D.C., and while this represents a 10% growth in Four Points, it?s a quantum leap for us.? The acquisition increased Barcelo Hotels USA total room count to 4,089 rooms and Four Points to 25,317 rooms worldwide. Barcelo Hospitality USA will continue to manage the Radisson properties, as well as the Clarions. ?It?s an opportunity for us to really demonstrate to the industry our ability to perform on a portfolio play… I think we have been able to demonstrate to the Barcelo group that we?re very confident there will be no backward step for these properties; the step will be pretty forward as they join our brand… co-branding of properties has been for us not a zero-sum game but a win/win,? said Robert Cotter, Starwood?s COO. ?I?m confident the brand is going to perform for these assets in a way that they have not performed in the past,? he added. Commenting on the deal, Arthur Adler, managing director/CEO with oversight of transactions and investment in The Americas for Jones, Lang LaSalle Hotels, said, ?Wyndham?s really moving in another direction with [its]Wyndham Garden. They?re converting a lot of the high-rise Wyndham Gardens to full-service Wyndhams so [it?s] not necessarily interested in growing the Garden brand per se…therefore they become good conversion candidates to other brands. ?All around it was a good deal,? Adler continued. ?The returns that Bedrock received were very favorable given the fact that [it]bought these properties at the bottom of the market and did a good job of converting them to Wyndham Gardens. For Wyndham, it?s fine because [the properties]don?t necessarily fit with [its]strategy long-term for the Garden brand and for Wyndham; for Barcelo, it?s a good opportunity to take the properties forward, and putting a Starwood brand on them will make sense for the real estate; and it makes sense for Starwood? it?s substantially increasing the Four Points brand in good properties that are well located. It?s one of those deals where it works for everybody.? ?None of the properties that are joining the system are entering the market for Four Points for the first time. What they are doing is exactly what this brand is intended to do? they are beefing up our presence? all of them in the top MSAs in the country, all of them top products and all of them giving us more significant presence in top major metros in the United States,? said Cotter. The Four Points Barcelo hotels are located in Newark and Piscataway, NJ; Pittsburgh, PA; Burlington and Waltham, MA; Oakbrook, IL; Kansas City, MO; Lexington, KY; Denver, CO; Phoenix, AZ; and Monrovia, Culver City an
