LaSalle will fork over $91.2 million for the 357-room Hilton San Diego Resort. The property sits on 18 acres along the Mission Bay Park waterfront and features 16,000 sf of meeting and function space and 9,600 sf of outdoor meeting space. "San Diego is a strong market in and of itself, and it is growing so there is a lot of upside," LaSalle CFO Hans Weger tells GlobeSt.com. LaSalle will spend approximately $10 million to upgrade the property, and while it will continue to carry the Hilton flag, it will ultimately be operated by Noble House Hotels & Resorts.

In a planned $26.4-million transaction, LaSalle will make its entrée into the Seattle market with the acquisition of the Best Western University Tower Hotel, which is located two blocks from the University of Washington. In addition to its 158 rooms, the hotel also features 6,700 sf of meeting space. Management of the property will be taken over by Seattle-based Noble House. "The Best Western is in name only," Weger explains. "We will be removing the flag and we'll be putting some money into it to finish up the hotel's upgrade."

The lodging REIT will also spend $44.6 million for the Holiday Inn Downtown in Washington, DC. The 212-room hotel will be repositioned, courtesy of a $21-million makeover. "We will close it down next year and it will come back as a high-end independent hotel similar to our DC Collection," Weger says. "It will have a high-end, interesting design."