The retail component, which comes with the hotel purchase, is a separate 100,000-sf, three-floor building. According to a statement about the pending acquisition, DiamondRock executives say the company plans to turn some of the 100,000 sf of retail space into meeting and exhibit space and then lease the remaining to retail tenants.

The plot, ripe for development, is 1.5 acres and currently vacant. Zoning allows for a 325-room property with 100 underground parking spaces. According to the release the development could be attached to the convention center. DiamondRock acknowledges the new hotel could be an expansion of the Westin or a different Starwood brand.

The Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel also has the right to use 50,000 sf of meeting space and 40,000 sf of ballroom space at the BCEC, as available, through 2017.

Schecter says the asset will fill two voids in the company's portfolio at once, giving it ownership in both a Boston property and a convention hotel. "We're very excited by it," he says, noting that the property's location in the city's rapidly expanding Seaport District should reflect "a ton of potential down the road."

"The combination of the Seaport District growth and the normal ramp up of a convention hotel should yield several years of outsized growth," says John Williams, president and chief operating officer of Diamondback, in a statement.

The hotel, which opened in June, along with the retail space, is expected to generate $24.6 million in earnings for 2007 and $31.8 million for 2008 before interest, taxes and other expenses.