Ashford Hospitality Trust hands keys to 14 hotels to lenders

DALLAS — Dallas-based REIT Ashford Hospitality Trust (AHT) has sold an asset in Georgia and handed over possession and control of 14 of its hotels, in two loan pools, back to the loan servicers.

The REIT said it closed on the sale of the 85-key Hampton Inn in Lawrenceville, Georgia, for $8.1 million or $95,300 per key. The sale price represented a 6% capitalization rate on trailing 12-month net operating income through March 2024.  

AHT first announced last July that it would likely return the keys of 19 underperforming hotels to its loan servicers. In December, the REIT said it completed the transfer to lenders of five of those properties, including hotels in Arizona, California, Georgia, New Jersey and North Carolina. AHT said that since July, it has “been fully cooperating with the servicer for a consensual foreclosure or deed in lieu of foreclosure on these properties.” The REIT said that due to the transfer, it “has no further economic interest in the operations of these hotels.”

The 14 hotels are in two loan pools: a $180.7 million “KEYS A” loan pool and a $174.4 million “KEYS B” loan pool. 

“KEYS A” loan pool

• Courtyard Columbus Tipton Lakes – Columbus, Indiana
• Courtyard Old Town – Scottsdale, Arizona
• Residence Inn Hughes Center – Las Vegas 
• Residence Inn Phoenix Airport – Phoenix
• Residence Inn San Jose Newark – Newark, California
• SpringHill Suites Manhattan Beach – Hawthorne, California
• SpringHill Suites Plymouth Meeting – Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania

“KEYS B” loan pool 

• Courtyard Basking Ridge – Basking Ridge, New Jersey 
• Courtyard Newark Silicon Valley – Newark, California
• Courtyard Oakland Airport – Oakland, California
• Courtyard Plano Legacy Park – Plano, Texas
• Residence Inn Plano – Plano, Texas
• SpringHill Suites BWI Airport – Baltimore
• TownePlace Suites Manhattan Beach – Hawthorne, California

“We are pleased with the progress we have made on our deleveraging plan, including the transfer of the KEYS A&B loan pool assets to the receiver,” Rob Hays, Ashford Trust’s president and CEO, said in a news release. “We continue to have several assets in the market at various stages of the sales process and look forward to providing more updates in the coming weeks.”

Earlier this month, AHT announced that Hays would step down from his role on June 30 and be replaced by Stephen Zsigray, currently SVP of corporate finance and strategy.

Earlier in April, Dallas-based Ashford Inc., which serves as an advisor to both Ashford Hospitality Trust and another NYSE-listed REIT, Braemar Hotels & Resorts, announced a plan to delist its common stock from trading on the New York Stock Exchange this summer, which it said will save $2.5 million per year. Late on April 1, the company announced that its board of directors had approved a plan to terminate its common stock under federal securities laws following the completion of a proposed reverse stock split, which would be followed immediately by a forward stock split transaction.

In late March, Braemar Hotels & Resorts faced a board challenge from an activist investor when New York City-based Blackwells Capital nominated new members for half of Braemar’s board after trying to acquire the company in December. Braemar says it was rejecting the nominations.

During its fourth-quarter earnings call in late February, Ashford Hospitality Trust (AHT) said it had signed a definitive agreement to sell the 390-key Hilton Boston Back Bay in Boston to an undisclosed buyer for $171 million. The REIT also said it had operating losses of $13.3 million for the fourth quarter and $31.3 million for 2023.

At the time, AHT also provided an update on its plan to pay off strategic financing with a final maturity date of January 2026. The REIT plans to raise capital through asset sales, mortgage debt refinancing, and non-traded preferred capital raises. It listed 12 hotels at various stages of being available for sale.