"The Dedham Hilton Place is an ideal addition to our fast-growing portfolio of high quality hotels in the Northeast. The property will benefit from synergies and economies of scale with its sister hotels in our portfolio," says Gregory D. Vickowski, executive vice president of finance for the Procaccianti Group, in a released statement. The company owns two other hotels in the state: the Sheraton Four Point in Leominster and the Double Tree in Lowell.

Vickowski notes in the statement that this acquisition is part of his company's strategy of "taking underperforming hotels, upgrading them and re-energizing management to improve competitiveness, market penetration and asset value." The company plans to begin a six million dollar renovation on the hotel next month to be completed by fall 2002.

The Plasencia Group, a Tampa-based hotel investment banking and advisory firm, represented TIAA/CREF in the transaction. In the statement, Dan Peek, vice president of TPG, says that this transaction "was an opportunity for TIAA/CREF to realize a key goal of their portfolio management strategy."