While the sale was substantial in and of itself, the real import of the deal comes in the fact that it might kick off an international flurry of Japanese hotel buys. "There's been an enormous amount of capital raised for investment in Japan, but to date there hadn't been one hotel sale," Rob Stiles tells GlobeSt.com in an exclusive interview. Stiles is the San Francisco-based managing director of Sonnenblick-Goldman, and regional managing director of its Asian operations. Sonnenblick, headquartered in Manhattan, co-represented Royal Hotel with Arthur Andersen.

"There have been a number of smaller hotel transactions," Stiles explains, "but none were internationally marketed. This is the first where international as well as domestic investors had the right to bid." The problem to date has been that sellers have been slow to catch on to the interest that exists out there. "There are teams scouring the market for opportunities," he says. With this sale, "bankers and owners will realize that the capital is there."

The deal, which closed on Wednesday (Japan time), was the result of a six-month marketing program ("Fairly typical," says Stiles) in which "interest was strong. Eight of the 10 finalists were North American capital sources. Part of their interest was that there is such a dearth of available product there." Sonnenblick lodging and leisure group managing director Mark Gordon handled marketing in the US.