Over the past year, there’s been a surge in hotel sales in Baton Rouge with a dozen hotels changing hands through November, compared to just four sales posted in 2018.
According to Daily Report archives, local investors were the main buyers this year. New Orleans-based Jayvivek LLA LLC bought the 122-room Radisson Baton Rouge Hotel and Conference Center on South Acadian Thruway in March for $2.7 million from a Miami-based investment group.
Baton Rouge-based Maruti Investment paid more than $10 million for two hotel properties in the Baton Rouge Health District. Buying from Hospitality Investors Trust Inc., a New York-based investment trust, Maruti paid $4.1 million for the TownPlace Suites by Marriott on Summa Avenue and $6 million for the Hyatt Place on Bluebonnet Drive.
Alpesh Patel, of Baton Rouge, bought the Comfort Inn on Constitution Avenue, nestled between DoubleTree by Hilton and Embassy Suites by Hilton, for $3.3 million.
The SpringHill Suites by Marriott on Essen Park Avenue, off Essen Lane, was also sold to local investors for $3.7 million—nearly $4 million less than it was bought for in 2015.
Topping the sales is the SpringHill Suites by Marriott on Howell Boulevard, near the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport, which was sold to a Minnesota-based hotel operator for $11 million. Oliver Companies bought the property from a subsidiary of Apple Hospitality REIT Inc., a publicly traded real estate investment trust.
Not all of the hotel properties sold in the Capital Region last year were purchased as investments. The Foundation for Louisiana Students purchased the 110-room Comfort Suites University, on Valley Creek Drive, for $6 million. The organization has plans to renovate the building into a teaching space.
Local investors also bought the former Cloverleaf Suites on Corporate Boulevard for $3.2 million from a New York-based group, with plans to renovate the property into apartments.
