December 3, 2014 – Banyan Investment Group and Investra Investments have acquired a Homewood Suites on Providence Park Drive, two miles from the regional airport in Mobile, Alabama. Loxi Hospitality provided advisory services with the transaction.
The property will immediately undergo a $2.7 million renovation — expected to be complete by early next year — that will meet or exceed the architectural and design standards specified by Hilton Worldwide’s Take Flight initiative.
Features of the three-story Homewood Suites include 86 one and two-bedroom suites, each with a separate living room and fully-equipped kitchen; a business center; fitness center, outdoor pool; barbeque area; onsite convenience store; and 400 sq. ft. of meeting space.
Banyan and Investra have collaborated on two other projects in 2014 that total $20 million in combined acquisition and improvement costs.
“This is our third asset acquisition together during the past 12 months, consistent with our company’s North American real estate investment strategy of tripling our hotel portfolio by the end of 2015,” according to Mobeen Jassat, principal with Investra that is based in Dubai and London.
“In collaboration with strong local operators such as Banyan, we are pursuing select service assets that feature well-known and well-respected hotel brands.”
Added Andy Chopra, Chief Investment Officer and a principal with Banyan Investment Group, “Our firms continue to actively evaluate value-added acquisition opportunities and we expect to proceed with appropriate projects in coming months. The southeastern region is an area that we know very well and this site is especially desirable.”
Located nearby the Homewood Suites are the campuses of the University of South Alabama and Springhill College, as well as Providence Hospital, and major facilities of Alabama Power and the U.S. Coast Guard.
Another demand generator for the hotel is the new $600 million Airbus facility that will employ 1,000 people and be that company’s first North American passenger jet manufacturing center.
