Rihga Royal Narita Moves for $75 Mil; May Spur Japan Hotel Plays

NEW YORK CITY-In what is being billed as the first arms-length internationally transacted hotel sale in Japan, Royal Hotel Ltd. of Osaka has shed its Rihga Royal lodging asset in Narita. Ishin Hospitality Group, a joint venture of Soros Real Estate Partners and Westmont Hospitality, paid between $70 million and $75 million for the 548-key deluxe hotel, adjacent to the new Tokyo International Airport.

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.”