Whitney sale highlights resilient hotel market
An affiliate of Egeria Group, a multinational investment firm, has acquired The Whitney Hotel Boston on Beacon Hill for $57 million, according to a Suffolk County deed filed Thursday.
The building at 170 Charles St. dates to 1909 and is located at the foot of the Longfellow Bridge, just across from a pedestrian overpass to the Charles River Esplanade. Formerly a dormitory for Massachusetts Eye and Ear nurses, it later operated as bed and breakfast the John Jeffries House until late 2017.
Related Fund Management, the investment arm of developer Related Beal, purchased 170 Charles St. from Mass. Eye and Ear in 2016 for $25 million and launched a redevelopment the next year. The Whitney opened in 2019 as a luxury 65-room boutique hotel, with a ground-floor restaurant and cafe.
“There will be no meaningful change with the hotel or its management, and we are committed to ensuring a smooth transition to this new ownership group,” said Patrick Sweeney, managing director of Related Fund Management, in a statement.
In a statement, Egeria Group said it was looking forward to ”preserving the Whitney’s traditions in collaboration with the surrounding community.”
“We are proud to acquire this trophy hotel on Beacon Hill which underlines our long-term commitment to Boston,” a company representative said. Egeria has offices in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Boston.
Boston Realty Advisors brokered the sale, which comes at a time of growing bifurcation in the city’s commercial real estate market. Jason Weissman, founder and senior partner at Boston Realty Advisors, said trophy properties like The Whitney will continue to draw top dollar.
“Real estate is local — street by street, asset by asset,” Weissman said. “The market for great assets in Boston is healthy.”
While persistently high interest rates have caused a slowdown in overall hotel sales across the United States, deals are still happening for luxury properties. Roughly $6 billion in US hotel assets sold in the third quarter, down almost 50 percent from a year prior but up $300 million from the prior quarter, CoStar Group data show.
“Many hotel investors are betting on the continued strong performance in the higher-end sector, and are counting on returning group travel and luxury leisure travelers who are less impacted by a looming economic slowdown,” wrote Jan Freitag, national director of hospitality analytics at CoStar Group, in an October report.