Real estate

When hotel property deals dry up in a market, the smart buyers stop chasing buildings one at a time and buy the operating platform instead. That is how I read Prism's move for Fletcher Hotels. In one signature it gets 130 owned and operated hotels, a proven acquisition team and a known local brand, at a moment when very few investors are willing to write cheques for Dutch hotels at all.

Pandox has agreed to sell seven leased hotel properties in Denmark and Sweden, 1,248 rooms in total, for around SEK 2.1 billion. Five Danish hotels with 928 rooms, including Motel One Copenhagen and four Scandic properties, go to a company jointly owned by Alma Property Partners and Midstar for DKK 1,155 million. Two Scandic hotels in Halmstad and Kalmar, with 320 rooms, go to Västerkulla Hotell for SEK 369 million. The hotels produce about SEK 130 million in annual net operating income, which Hospitality ON puts at a yield of around 6.2%. Pandox says the price is above book value, the proceeds cut debt, and closing is expected in the fourth quarter.

ParkCity Group, the Malaysian developer behind the Desa ParkCity township, has agreed to buy the Sheraton Hong Kong Tung Chung and the Four Points by Sheraton next door for about RM1.4 billion. The seller is Shimao, the Chinese developer whose default on multiple loans and bonds put the complex into receivership. Together the two hotels have 218 rooms and suites at the Sheraton plus more than 1,000 rooms at the Four Points, about 610,000 square feet of floor area, and the T-Bay retail and dining hub. The tender ran from June to August 31, and the deal is expected to close by the end of 2026. Deloitte's Glen Ho told the South China Morning Post the price was well below the property's valuation, so the lending banks will also take a loss.

Brasswater, led by Ian Quint, has paid a combined $48 million for two Hilton-branded Hampton Inns in Palm Beach County, according to The Real Deal. The 165-key Hampton Inn & Suites in Boynton Beach traded for $29.1 million, about $176,000 per key, and the 110-room Hampton Inn West Palm Beach Florida Turnpike sold for $18.9 million, about $171,800 per key. Both came from an entity tied to Hospitality Investors Trust, and both last changed hands in 2015.

The Plaza Hotel in New York announced on October 14 that it will close in January 2027 for at least four years so its landmark-protected facade can be restored. The hotel opened in 1907 on Fifth Avenue at the southeast corner of Central Park and is part of Accor's Fairmont brand. According to Hotel Dive, the full scope of the work is still under review, and the event rooms and the Palm Court restaurant will close along with the guest rooms. The hotel said the project would disrupt operations too much to stay open.

AXE Management Partners, the pan-Asian alternative investor founded by Gary Kwok, has sold a three-hotel, 518-room portfolio in central Osaka to Tokyo-listed real estate manager Creal for about JPY 21 billion, or roughly USD 132.8 million, according to KrASIA. AXE bought the hotels from CapitaLand Ascott Trust in 2024 for JPY 10.7 billion. Two of the three properties had been closed since 2020, after their original operator entered court-supervised restructuring. AXE refurbished them, brought in IHG's midscale Garner brand and reopened them in the first half of 2025.

Service Properties Trust, the REIT managed by The RMR Group, has received an unsolicited $2 billion cash offer from TKO LLC for all 93 of its hotels, roughly 12% of its 838 properties. The bid, dated October 7, is larger than SVC's entire market value, which sits below $1 billion after the shares fell more than 40% over the past year. TKO wants the hotels free of brand management and franchise agreements, and SVC has until Friday to respond.