As reported by GlobeSt.com earlier this month

The properties involved in this transaction, which totals 1,948 rooms, are the 579-room South Seas Island Resort on Captiva, the 426-room Hilton Clearwater Beach Resort, the 296-room Hilton Cocoa Beach Oceanfront, as well as the Dunes Golf and Tennis Club. Others in the portfolio are the 46-room Best Western Sanibel Island Beach Resort, the 96-room Sanibel Inn, the 32-room Seaside Inn, the 200-room Sheraton Beach Resort Key Largo, the 30-room Song of the Sea and the Sundial Beach Resort, which has 243 rooms.

Mike Bauer, MeriStar's senior director, finance and investor relations, previously told GlobeSt.com MeriStar had planned to sell the Sanibel holdings as a group and Blackstone expressed interested in the other properties. "The pricing was opportunistic." He added that approximately five of the 27 properties the REIT earmarked in its asset disposition effort remain unsold. In its second quarter 2005 earnings report, MeriStar said it planned to sell one of its seven hotels in Florida that suffered through the hurricanes that hit the state.

MeriStar also submitted an irrevocable notice to redeem the remaining $106 million of its 10.5% senior unsecured notes due 2011, with a redemption date of March 27, 2006. Additionally, the company repaid $75 million of term loan debt under its secured credit facility and retired the $44-million mortgage on the Hilton Clearwater Beach Resort. "As a result of this transaction we will have significantly greater financial flexibility and greater visibility on the timing of restoring a regular cash dividend to our common shareholders," said Paul Whetsell, chairman and CEO, when the deal was announced.