"This is an important investment opportunity for the university, one that will allow us to generate revenue to continue to support our educational mission," GW president Stephen Joel Trachtenberg is reported as saying.

Potomac Hospitality Services will manage the 151-unit, West End hotel. PHS has provided similar services in the past for guests at the West End. This is the university's second hotel property. It purchased the George Washington University Inn, formerly known as the Inn at Foggy Bottom, in 1994.

Starwood also sold the 251-room Four Points Hotel in Hyannis, MA to H&K Properties, LP. The two sales total approximately $30 million. Combined with its 2000 sales figures, Starwood's proceeds from total asset sales is more than $400 million. More than $7 billion in non-strategic asset sales have been completed since the company's acquisition of ITT Sheraton in 1998.