London-based InterContinental Hotels Group PLC has sold the InterContinental Buckhead Atlanta to Maryland‘s Pebblebrook Hotel Trust for $105 million in cash.
InterContinental will continue to operate the 422-room hotel under a long-term management contract. Pebblebrook will invest about $7 million in capital improvements.
The move is part of the global hotel chain’s strategy to free up capital invested in buildings for use in ramping up its management and franchise businesses. InterContinental, which has its North American headquarters in Atlanta, has since 2003 divested itself of 185 hotels with a combined net book value of $5.3 billion.
The InterContinental Buckhead was built with the company’s own capital in 2004 as a “showcase” to build its brand across the Americas, said Richard Solomons, chief financial officer for InterContinental Hotels Group, in a news release.
“Since then we have signed 21 InterContinental hotels in the region,” Mr. Solomons said. “We are now able to recycle the capital we have invested in the building whilst maintaining a long-term management contract with a great partner, reinforcing the strength of the brand.”
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