HEI Hotels & Resorts Trades Aloft Houston Galleria Hotel

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

HEI Hotels & Resorts, of Norwalk, Conn., has sold the 152-key Aloft Houston Galleria hotel, it was announced Tuesday by HFF, which represented HEI in the sale. The buyer and price were not disclosed. As of press time, HEI had not responded to Commercial Property Executive’s request for further information.

But according to the Houston Business Journal, Westpark I, a Melville, New York-based group bought the property.

The transaction closed on Dec. 22, an HFF spokesperson told CPE.

HEI will continue to manage the select-service boutique property, which is sited on an approximately 1-acre parcel at 5415 Westheimer Road in Houston’s Galleria/Uptown area a few blocks from the Galleria Mall and less than a mile from the West Loop (I-610).

The five-story Aloft by Starwood–branded hotel was completed in 2009 and has 112 king, 30 double queen, five accessible king and five accessible queen guest rooms.  Aloft Houston Downtown is expected to open in 2016, according to the HBJ.

The hotel is pet-friendly and provides a lounge with pool table, an indoor heated pool, a 24-hour fitness center, 500 square feet of meeting space, and in-room guest terminals for Internet access. It also features re:fuel by Aloft, a “self-service gourmet eatery” offering salads, sandwiches, wraps and cappuccinos.

The HFF investment sales team that represented HEI was led by senior managing director Dan Peek, who heads HFF’s hotel group; managing directors John Bourret and Colby Mueck; and real estate analyst Austin Brooks.

About 4,700 hotel rooms are under construction in Houston, or more than a third of the 14,000 or so under way throughout Texas, second-half 2014 report from Marcus & Millichap. The report nonetheless predicts continued RevPAR growth, in the high single digits, in the coming quarters, as demand continues to outpace supply growth.

As to hotel deal flow, the report notes that investor demand “far exceeds” the inventory listed for sale in Texas, as buyers seek to move ahead while the hotel industry enjoys “an extensive upswing in property performance.”