New York firm buys Hampton Inn in KoP

Source, Philadelphia Business Journal, Natalie Kostelni

The Hampton Inn in King of Prussia has sold for $16.7 million, or a modest premium over the amount it traded for three years ago.

MCR Hotels, a New York firm that is the fifth-largest hotel owner-operator in the country, bought the 149-room hotel at 530 W. DeKalb Pike. The seller was Ascent Hospitality, which bought it in March 2016 for $16.3 million.

This is the third time in the last five years that the property has traded. Prior to Ascent’s purchase, the hotel sold in December 2014 for $12.4 million, according to Montgomery County property records.

The Hampton Inn is near King of Prussia Mall and is in a market that has 16 hotels that have traded with some frequency.

Earlier this year, Hyatt Place, a 129-room hotel that was built in 2000, sold for $12.67 million, and the Doubletree, a 340-room hotel at 301 W. DeKalb Pike, sold for $26.4 million in separate transactions. The Hyatt at 440 American Ave. last traded in 2016 for $13 million, according to property records. In 2015, Buccini Pollin Group paid $49.5 million for the Crowne Plaza and Fairfield Inn.

The King of Prussia market has several drivers for hotel stays including the mall, Valley Forge National Historical Park, Valley Forge Casino Resort and it is a regional office hub. Suburban hotels also pitch themselves as an alternative to pricier Center City lodging.

Other reasons for hotel stays include Cirque Du Soleil, Big Apple Circus and events at the Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks. They have also helped increase Montgomery County tourism spending closer to $2 billion this year from $1.65 billion in 2018.

King of Prussia has benefiting from sustained tourism growth resulting in an increase in hotel room nights and retail and restaurant spending as well.

MCR had been trying to buy in King of Prussia for some time. “King of Prussia is a very hot market,” said Joe Delli Santi, senior vice president at the company. “You have the biggest mall in the country, Villanova is nearby, there’s health care with Children’s Hospital, and you have a very good corporate business. We’ve looked at a couple of deals over the years.”

Most recently, MCR considered buying Hyatt Place and Double Tree as well as Spring Hill Suites. The pricing wasn’t good and the company walked away from them, Delli Santi said.

The Hampton Inn was developed in 1991 and in the last couple of years underwent $5 million in renovations. In light of that, MCR doesn’t plan any major upgrades.

MCR mostly owns hotels in suburban markets. In the Philadelphia area, it owns a Residence Inn in Langhorne and in Bishops Gate in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, and will consider making another buy in King of Prussia.