By Jack Stubbs
On Monday, March 12th, the Sleep Inn SeaTac Airport Hotel sold for $17.6 million, or approximately $167,620 per room, according to public records filed with King County. The buyer was Seaview Hotel Investment LLC, an entity affiliated with Binchi Zhang based in Bellevue. The seller was Che Investments LLC, an entity associated with Unshik Che and Miran Che based in Seattle. The transaction for the hotel was recorded on March 14th.
The Sleep Inn SeaTac Airport hotel, located at 20406 International Blvd., contains 105 rooms and was built in 1999. Some of the prominent property amenities available to residents include a fitness and business center, in-room safe and indoor parking. The hotel also includes business and event spaces that range from 612 to 1,224 square feet, according to the property’s web site. The room rates at the hotel range between $94 and $119 per night.
The web site also highlights the property’s proximity to various attractions in Seattle including Pike Place, the Chihuly Glass Garden, the Boeing Museum of Flight and the Starfire Sports Complex. The property is also just two miles south of SeaTac airport and less than half a mile from the Angle Lake Light Rail station. The asset is approximately five miles to the north of Kent, and about four miles south of Tukwila, and also sits less than half a mile from I-5 and Washington State Route 99.
Che Investments LLC’s disposition of the airport hotel is the latest transaction that Unshik and Miran Che have been involved in over the last several months in the greater Seattle area. In March 2017, the company acquired a Red Lion Inn & Suites in Federal Way for $8.8 million, or approximately $97,778 per room. And more recently, in May 2017, Che Investments acquired the 25,600 square foot Seattle Hill Retail/Shopping Center in Snohomish for $13.5 million.
The sales price of $17.6 million for the Sleep Inn hotel is similar to the amount paid for another hotel property in the area in recent weeks. On February 1st, 2018, HSK212 LLC acquired the 152-unit Hawthorne Suites by Wyndham Hotel in Kent for $17 million, or approximately $111,842 per room, from Seattle-based hospitality firm Lala Salama Hospitality Inc.
The hotel market in the Puget Sound region has been active over the past few months. According to a fourth quarter 2017 Seattle Hotel Market report by Kidder Mathews, hotels in Seattle and SeaTac generated the highest room prices in 2017, and Seattle and SeaTac were also the top performers in terms of occupancy, with annual averages of over 80 percent, according to the report.
Excluding national portfolios, resorts, and potential tear downs, there were 23 sales of hotels in King, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties at prices exceeding $2 million. The aggregate transaction volume was $415 million, and with 2,005 guest rooms, the weighted average price per room was $206,906, according to the report.
There have also been two other large-scale hotel transactions posted over the last couple of months. On January 30th, Junson Capital acquired the 319-room Motif Hotel in Downtown Seattle from North Carolina-based Barings for $145 million, or roughly $454,545 per room. On March 8th, South Korea-based Aju Hotels and Resorts acquired the 7-story, 234-room Marriott AC Hotel in Downtown Bellevue for $87 million (approximately $371,800 per room) from White/Peterman Properties Inc.
