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1. Trinity Picks Up W Hollywood
Hawaii-based Trinity Investments has purchased the W Hollywood hotel for an undisclosed sum from Host Hotels & Resorts, CoStar News reports. The 305-room property last sold in March 2017 for $219 million.
Trinity, which has historically invested in hotel and resort property on the Pacific Coasts of the U.S. and Mexico, along with Hawaii, has been raising hundreds of millions of dollars for acquisitions this year.
In other acquisition news, Oxford Capital Group announced the company purchased the 453-room Westin Book Cadillac Detroit Hotel with plans to completely renovate the property over the next two years, according to a news release.
2. Businesses Confused by State of Vaccine Mandate
An ongoing legal battle and changes in recommendations in terms of vaccinations have left businesses confused on where they stand and how they should comply with the White House's mandate that all large employers require employees to be fully vaccinated to institute regular testing programs, the New York Times reports.
“My clients are totally confused as, quite frankly, am I,” Erin McLaughlin, a labor and employment lawyer at Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney, told the newspaper. “My sense is that there are a lot of employers scrambling to try and put their mandate programs in place.”
One point of contention now is the definition of fully vaccinated and whether the government will ask employers to also require booster shots.
3. The Cocktails You'll Want To Drink This Holiday Season
Hotel News Now's Dana Miller has compiled a list of hotel-created cocktails for the holiday season, which is headlined this year by a pair of vodka-based drinks: the Hall Arts Hotel Dallas' Gingerbread Bellini and the Gwen Hotel's Pilsko.
The former drink includes fresh ginger, lemon juice and the vodka of the drinker's choice, while the latter is Belevedere Vodka, warming spices, cranberry-apple tea and cider shrub.
4. Moderna Says Its Booster Protects Against Omicron
With fears swirling about just how much protection vaccines provide against the quickly spreading omicron variant of COVID-19, Moderna has announced booster doses of its vaccine offer significant protection, with up to 83 times the antibodies than those who just received two doses, Bloomberg reports.
In a statement, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said “To respond to this highly transmissible variant, Moderna will continue to rapidly advance an omicron-specific booster candidate into clinical testing in case it becomes necessary in the future.
5. Marcus, Searchlight Form Joint Venture
Marcus Hotels & Resorts and Searchlight Capital Partners have announced a new joint venture for hotel acquisitions, which begins with the purchase of the Kimpton Hotel Monaco Pittsburgh, according to a news release.
The new JV will focus on investing in "lifestyle hotels, resorts and high-quality full-service properties," which will be managed by Marcus.