By MARC STILES
The recently completed Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Seattle’s Denny Triangle has a new owner: a German fund manager called Union Investment.
Public records show that Union Investment paid Seattle-based development company Touchstone $88 million for the 222-room hotel at 1821 Boren Ave. The building is let on a 30-year lease, according to Union Investment.
The hotel is part of the Hill7 mixed-use development, where Redfin has its headquarters. The Hilton Garden Inn is Union Investment’s first hotel acquisition on the West Coast of the United States.
This is the second major acquisition by Hamburg-based Union Investment since late 2015, when it paid $299 million for two Amazon-occupied office buildings in South Lake Union.
Last fall, Touchstone sold the office portion of Hill7 for nearly $180 million to Los Angeles-based Hudson Pacific Properties and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. In addition, to Redfin, HBO has office space in the building.
“This acquisition clearly shows that our hotel investment radar also includes attractive locations on the West Coast of the U.S.,” Andreas Löcher, head of Investment Management Hospitality at Union Investment, said in a press release. “Successful tech companies such as Amazon, Microsoft and innovation leaders in the field of biomedicine promise a prosperous future for the city. Increasing demand for office space also opens up excellent outlook for hotel investments.”
This new acquisition in Seattle sees Union Investment’s hotel portfolio increase to 61 hotels with a total of just under 17,000 rooms.
