Property deeds have been recorded in county offices in North Carolina, New York, Alabama and other states in the past few days showing the sales of hotels to affiliates of New York private equity firm KKR.
The public documents are notable in that the hotels involved belonged to a portfolio of 48 properties owned by a joint venture of DigitalBridge, formerly Colony Capital, and Chatham Lodging Trust. The property transfers signal that the entire portfolio tied to a $780 million loan on the commercial mortgage-backed securites market could be changing ownership.
KKR declined to comment. DigitalBridge and Chatham Lodging did not respond to requests for comment.
CoStar Group has begun changing the ownership status on almost all of the hotels at the request of operators.
The CMBS loan transferred to special servicing at the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020, and the borrowers failed to make their final loan maturity payment in June 2020, according to CoStar’s CMBS servicing notes supplied by Intex Solutions. The CMBS trustees and the borrower attempted to negotiate a loan modification but could not come to an agreement on terms, the notes said.
The lender then appointed LW Hospitality Advisors as a receiver on the properties. LW Hospitality declined to comment.
Following the appointment of LW Hospitality, the borrower entered into a purchase and sale agreement with an unidentified buyer subject to lender consent for assumption of the debt, according to the CMBS notes.
The entire portfolio contains 6,401 rooms and was last valued at $1 billion.