Seattle Hotel Investment LLC, a group of local Chinese investors out of Bellevue, purchased the Comfort Inn & Suites North Seattle for $10.7 million or $150,704 per room from SEP Limited Liability Co., associated with Esther and Michael Park of Bellevue in a deal that closed on February 17th. Seattle Hotel Investment is affiliated with Washington Hotel Management.
Built in 1990, the four-story, 50,288 square foot building is located at 13700 Aurora Ave. N. The Comfort Inn & Suites hotel has 71 rooms.
King County public records list a deduction in personal property of $700,000, resulting in a taxable selling price of $10 million. Records also show the seller, SEP Limited Liability Company, originally purchased the property in October of 2006 for $4.5 million.
Investor Xiaonan Song, one of the buyers of the hotel, said Comfort Inn is a Choice Hotels International-branded property that just underwent an extensive renovation.
“The renovation has brought the property up to an excellent condition and we are attracted by the condition of the property,” said Song. Another element of the property that attracted the investors was the hotel’s location and proximity to downtown Seattle. “Location wise, it’s only about 12 minutes from downtown Seattle through HWY99 and we think it provides a very attractive alternative to downtown hotels which typically are at a much higher price point,” he said.
The group has acquired other properties in Seattle including four apartments and two shopping centers but Song said this is their first hotel purchase adding, “we are looking forward to running it well.”
Song said the group decided to break into the hotel market because one of their investors has owned a motel for five years and they are looking to expand and apply their capital to a bigger and better hotel. Song said the funding source to purchase this hotel comes from local Chinese investors.
He also hinted that this wouldn’t be the group’s only hotel purchase. “We are looking to expand in Seattle and we are very positive about the future in the Seattle area even though there are never hotels being built in the area,” Song said.
A 2016 fourth quarter report from Kidder Mathews on Seattle’s hotel market found that Seattle’s metro area has remained strong but increases in supply may soon outpace demand. However, the report was optimistic about smaller communities outside the Seattle metro area. “While some urban markets may soon be saturated, the region still offers opportunities for development of new hotels. Many small and midsize communities outside the Seattle metro area have seen little or no construction in at least a decade. In such markets, a new hotel can quickly become the dominant lodging property if properly sized, positioned, and branded.”
