DiamondRock Hospitality Sells Downtown D.C. Hotel at Big Discount
The REIT traded the Westin Washington D.C. City Center to an undisclosed buyer for nearly 40% less than it paid for it in 2012
By Nick Trombola February 21, 2025 2:18 pm
reprints
A Maryland-based real estate investment trust has sold a hotel in Downtown Washington, D.C., for significantly less than what it purchased the property for more than a decade ago, in yet another example of D.C. assets trading at major discounts.
DiamondRock Hospitality, a Bethesda-based REIT focused on hotel properties, sold The Westin Washington D.C. City Center, a 410-room hotel at 1400 M Street NW, for $92 million, the company announced this week. The buyer of the hotel was not disclosed, and was not yet reflected in property records.
The sale price is nearly 40 percent lower than the $153 million DiamondRock paid then-owner Blackstone (BX) for the hotel in 2012, records show. The sale was part of a four-property, $495 million deal with Blackstone at the time. The company said in its announcement of that deal that it would spend an additional $13 million in capital improvements on the D.C. hotel, though it’s unclear if those renovations ever came about.
“The sale of the Westin D.C. City Center marks an important step in our strategy to drive long-term earnings and cash flow per share growth, and we plan to prudently redeploy the proceeds to create exceptional value for our shareholders,” Jeffrey J. Donnelly, DiamondRock’s CEO, said in a statement.
Representatives for DiamondRock did not immediately respond to requests for further information or comment.
The deal for the Westin hotel is far from the only discounted sale happening in the District, which is wrought with sky-high vacancy rates and widespread uncertainty regarding the Trump administration’s efforts to downsize the federal workforce and sell some properties. Recent discounted sales include J.P. Morgan Investment Management’s $29.4 million sale in December of an 11-story, roughly 179,000-square-foot office property in Downtown D.C. to Real Capital Solutions for less than half of the $78.6 million J.P. Morgan paid for it in 2010.
Or there’s Chicago-based investment firm Harrison Street’s $45.5 million sale of a medical office near George Washington University to Bain Capital Real Estate and Evergreen Medical Properties. Harrison Street had paid $61.6 million for the office in 2013, according to property records.
Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.
