Carey Watermark Buys 295-Key Kansas City Marriott Country Club Plaza

By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

Carey Watermark Investors Inc. has been on quite the buying binge this year, and the REIT’s recent acquisition of the Kansas City Marriott Country Club Plaza has kept the trend alive.  CWI purchased the 295-room hotel from an affiliate of Noble Investment Group for $56.7 million.

With an address along Main St. just four miles from downtown Kansas City, the Country Club Plaza sits within an upscale 15-block shopping district, which CWI CEO Michael Medzigian describes in a press release as “the most desirable lodging destination in Kansas City.”  The 19-story hotel first opened its doors in 1987, and has since been upgraded on more than a few occasions, including a $9 million comprehensive renovation under Noble’s ownership.

While the makeovers have kept the full-service facility in fine shape, CWI still plans to enhance the property with its own improvements. The REIT intends to update the 16,000 square feet of meeting space, as well as the food and beverage outlets and the building’s exterior. The $14.8 million in planned capital expenditures and other acquisition-related costs brings CWI’s total investment in the Country Club Plaza to $71.5 million.

CWI relied on $38.5 million of debt to partially finance the acquisition of the Kansas City asset, which marked the lodging REIT’s 9th purchase this year. The notable list of hotel and resort investments includes, the dual-branded Hampton Inn & Suites-Homewood Suites by Hilton Denver Downtown/Convention Center in Denver, which was picked up for $81.5 million, and the Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort & Spa, a 511-unit resort in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.  CWI also added the brand new 224-room Courtyard Times Square West to its portfolio for $95 million.

CWI certainly has the money to pool with debt for shopping sprees. Global net-lease REIT W. P. Carey Inc., which serves with Watermark Capital Partners as advisor to CWI and manager of its portfolio, raised approximately $103 million in the third quarter on CWI’s behalf, in conjunction with the hotel REIT’s $350 million follow-on offering.

There are still five weeks remaining in 2014, so CWI’s acquisition of the Country Club Plaza may very well not be the REIT’s last purchase of the year.