Apple Hospitality REIT, Inc. (NYSE: APLE) yesterday announced the acquisition of the AC Hotel by Marriott Louisville Downtown for $51 million, or approximately $327,000 per key, and the AC Hotel by Marriott Pittsburgh Downtown for $34 million, or approximately $254,000 per key.
“We are pleased to enhance our portfolio with these attractive acquisitions that highlight the strength of our relationships with best-in-class hotel owner-operators and our ability to drive value in a highly competitive marketplace,” said Nelson Knight, President, Real Estate and Investments of Apple Hospitality. “These thoughtfully designed hotels offer guests modern accommodations, comfortable meeting spaces and distinctive lounge areas, and are well positioned within their markets to benefit from a variety of business and leisure demand generators. We continue to actively explore additional opportunities, like these, that will optimize our portfolio in ways that will elevate our future performance and maximize long-term value for our shareholders.”
The 156-room AC Hotel Louisville Downtown opened in April 2018 and is located at 727 East Market Street, Louisville, Kentucky, within the vibrant East Market District, also known as NuLu for New Louisville, which is home to upscale restaurants, shops, art galleries and entertainment venues. The hotel benefits from a variety of leisure, academic and sports-related demand generators given its proximity to the KFC Yum! Center, the University of Louisville, the Kentucky International Convention Center, well-known bourbon distilleries, various outdoor spaces and parks, and Churchill Downs, home of the annual Kentucky Derby. In addition, numerous large companies and industries related to shipping and logistics, food and beverage, automobile manufacturing, health care and health insurance, among others, are located in Louisville and drive business-related travel to the area. Recent Louisville hotel performance has recovered to pre-pandemic levels. According to data provided by STR for the month of September 2022 as compared to September 2019, revenue per available room (“RevPAR”) for the Louisville CBD, KY submarket improved by approximately 2% and RevPAR for the AC Hotel Louisville Downtown improved by approximately 8%.
The 134-room AC Hotel Pittsburgh Downtown opened in July 2018 and is located at 1126 Smallman Street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, adjacent to the David L. Lawrence Convention Center and near the many restaurants, shops, art galleries, theaters, parks and riverfront walking trails of downtown Pittsburgh’s Cultural District, Market Square and Strip District. The hotel is ideally located a short distance from PPG Paints Arena, Acrisure Stadium and PNC Park, which are home to Pittsburgh’s professional sports teams and significant drivers of leisure travel to the area. In addition to leisure demand generators, the hotel benefits from a variety of corporate and academic demand driven by technology, robotics, financial services, manufacturing, automobile and health care companies located in the area as well as the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. In recent months, Pittsburgh has seen hotel performance exceed pre-pandemic levels, and according to data provided by STR for the month of September 2022 as compared to September 2019, RevPAR for the Pittsburgh CBD, PA submarket improved by approximately 17% and RevPAR for the AC Hotel Pittsburgh Downtown improved by approximately 36%.
Following these acquisitions, the Apple Hospitality portfolio includes 220 hotels with 28,983 guest rooms geographically diversified throughout 37 states.