Inland American to Buy More Hotels

Sept 24, 2007
By: Dees Stribling, Midwest Correspondent

Inland American Real Estate Trust Inc. has signed a deal to acquire various entities that form part of the hotel holdings of RLJ Development L.L.C., which owns about 130 hotels nationwide. The transaction was noted in an 8-K filing by the Oakbrook, Ill.-based REIT with the SEC last week, and later reported in the local media in Chicago.

According to the filing, Inland American will pay about $460 million in cash for RLJ Development companies that hold a 22-hotel portfolio. Figuring in the acquired companies' debt, the total transaction comes to about $920 million. The deal may close sometime in the fourth quarter of this year.

RLJ Development was founded by Robert L. Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television and owner of the Charlotte Bobcats of the National Basketball Association. Johnson began acquiring hotel assets earlier in this decade, but lately has been selling.

The RLJ Development deal, which has been in the works for some time, comes on the heels of the finalization of Inland American's purchase of Apple Hospitality, which the REIT bought for about $709 million. Apple stockholders approved the transaction on September 17.

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