LINCOLNSHIRE, IL-Suggesting its Schaumburg Marriott could change
hands before October, Strategic Hotel Capital Inc. plans to put
its 390-room Lincolnshire Marriott Resort on the market. The
company hopes to reinvest proceeds from the sales of the two
suburban assets, as well as an Embassy Suites property in Lake
Buena Vista, FL, in assets such as the Fairmont Chicago Hotel.
In addition to proceeds from sales of other
properties, Strategic Hotel Capital is planning to raise $200
million through a sale of 10.6 million shares of new common
stock. That would be enough to cover the purchase of the
692-room Fairmont Chicago, which the company has agreed to buy
from San Francisco-based Swig Co. for $154.7 million.
Earnings before interest, depreciation,
taxes and amortization at the 170-acre resort property along
Milwaukee Avenue were just shy of $2 million for the first six
months of the year, down 8.7% from the same time in 2004. While
EBIDTA is up 45% for the first six months of the year to $1.9
million, the 398-room Marriott Schaumburg is nonetheless for
sale, as is the Embassy Suites Lake Buena Vista, where
first-half EBIDTA is up 13.4% to $2.7 million.
?These three properties no longer fit in
with our strategic imperative of creating a top-end portfolio of
great properties with strong, unrealized potential,? said chief
executive officer Laurence Geller during the REIT?s earnings
conference call. ?The capital from these sales will be invested
into higher growth assets with far more long-term value-added
opportunities and greater real estate appreciation potential.?
Overlooking the city?s Millennium Park and
bordering the $2.5-billion Lakeshore East redevelopment, the
Fairmont Chicago is considered a ?four-for-four? buy for the
company, Geller said, in terms of location, an improving hotel
market, a ?great? brand and repositioning opportunities.
Strategic Hotel Capital is paying 11 to 11.8
times projected 2006 EBIDTA for the Fairmont Chicago, says chief
financial officer James Mead. That would equate to sales prices
around $50 million for each of the three properties on the
market. ?Pricing is in line with our expectations, and very
frankly, higher than what we were expecting in terms of
multiples,? Geller says.
