Orlando chain buys Hotel Commonwealth for $136M
Boston's Hotel Commonwealth, in the midst of a large expansion, soon will have a new owner under a $136 million deal to sell the Kenmore Square property to Xenia Hotels & Resorts.
Sage Hospitality's sale of the 149-room upscale, boutique hotel comes 2 1⁄2 years after the Denver company bought it for $79 million from Boston University with developable land behind it as part of the deal, and lucrative leases for 30,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.
That land abutting the Mass Pike is now the site of construction for a sixstory hotel wing with 96 guest rooms, more than 7,000 square feet of meeting space, almost 1,700 square feet of outdoor patio space and a three-level parking garage.
The acquisition is part of Orlando-based Xenia's strategy to add lifestyle boutique hotels to its portfolio. “The combination of the quality level of the hotel, its location in a vibrant neighborhood in a major lodging market and the opportunity to expand our relationship with Sage results in an excellent strategic fit for Xenia,” CEO Marcel Verbaas said.
Hotel Commonwealth posted revenue per available room (RevPAR) of $235 in the 12 months ended June 30, according to Xenia.
PKF Consulting, meanwhile, forecasts a 9 percent RevPAR increase for Greater Boston hotels this year. “We're seeing peak performance, certainly in Boston and many other markets,” PKF managing director Andrea Foster said. “That's driven somewhat by some increase in occupancy, but much more so by average daily (room) rate. And increases in average daily rate drive increases in profitability for hotels.”