Park Hotels & Resorts has put a 520-room hotel along Lake Michigan in Chicago on the market as the real estate investment trust looks to raise as much as $400 million through the sale of properties.
Park Hotels has hired JLL brokers to sell the longtime W hotel at 644 N. Lake Shore Drive, now known as the Wade, according to a marketing brochure.
The 32-story property is the latest to be teed up for sale after Park Hotels executives early this year said they planned to sell between $350 million and $400 million of non-core hotel properties in 2025, with plans to invest up to $330 million in renovations to improve its existing portfolio.
Chairman and CEO Thomas Baltimore Jr. said in May that the REIT wasn’t backing off those plans despite an uncertain transactions market because of geopolitical tensions and worries of a U.S. trade war.
Later in May, Park Hotels completed a high-profile disposition in San Francisco, selling the 316-unit Hyatt Centric Fisherman’s Wharf to New York-based EOS Investors for $80 million.
It’s unclear how much the REIT expects in a sale of the Chicago hotel. Park Hotels acquired the hotel as part of its buyout of Chesapeake Lodging Trust in 2019.
Tysons, Virginia-based Park Hotels declined to comment to CoStar News. The listing was earlier reported by Crain’s Chicago Business.
JLL is marketing the Wade as an opportunity to continue operating as a hotel near attractions such as the lake, Ohio Street Beach and Navy Pier, or to partially or fully convert the tower into a new use such as apartments. Zoning already in place allows for other uses such as residential.
Park Hotels is in the process of adding the Wade to Marriott International’s Tribute Portfolio lifestyle brand, according to the JLL brochure.
An investor could make renovations to the 1960s building to help boost its revenue per available room, or RevPAR, closer to pre-pandemic levels when it outperformed 94.5% of its competitors, according to JLL. Because of “recovery challenges since the pandemic,” that percentage had decreased to 79% as of April, JLL said.
The hotel underwent a $38 million renovation in 2014, and it has received $3.6 million in capital improvements since 2019, according to JLL.
The property includes about 20,000 square feet of event space, an indoor pool, fitness center, spa and 318 parking spaces in a five-story garage.
Park Hotels' other Chicago properties include the 1,544-room Hilton Chicago at 720 S. Michigan Ave., which is among the city’s largest hotels, and the 403-room former W hotel at 172 W. Adams St., recently rebranded as the Midland Hotel.
For the record
The seller is represented by JLL brokers Adam McGaughy, John Nugent, Mark Jindra and Nick Sullivan.