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Photo courtesy of Xenia Hotels & Resorts
The owners of Kenmore Square’s Hotel Commonwealth have unloaded the property at a discount amid continuing softness in the regional hotel market.
Xenia Hotels & Resorts sold the 245-room Boston property for $113 million, a $23 million drop from what Xenia bought it for in 2015.
The buyer was luxury hospitality investment firm Ohana Real Estate Investors.
The Florida REIT had previously announced its intent to sell the properties in August as a way to drum up cash amid a severe downturn in the hospitality industry. Also included in the deal was the the 492-room Renaissance Austin Hotel in Austin, Texas, which sold for $70 million, or approximately $142,000 per key. Xenia had sold another local hotel, the Residence Inn Boston Cambridge, earlier this year, along with five other hotel properties it owns.
Xenia temporarily shut down 31 hotels in March and April, and had 35 hotels in operation at the end of July, representing 83 percent of its room portfolio.
The hospitality industry has continued to stagger under the weight of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the American Hotel and Lodging Association warning of a potential “collapse” in September, and some forecasts this summer projecting significant declines in revenue per available room until the pandemic ends.
Being a mid-sized hotel right next to Boston University and the growing biotech cluster in the Fenway, the Hotel Commonwealth may be better positioned to weather expected reductions in business travel post-pandemic.
