Linchris Hotel Corp., another veteran Massachusetts lodging company, is buying the assets in a joint venture with Strategic Capital Partners of Chicago. Besides the Brookline operation, properties changing hands are the 227-room Hampton Inn Boston Logan Airport and the Holiday Inn at Mansfield/Foxboro in Mansfield, a 202-key full-service facility. The two Maine hotels are in the state's capital, Augusta, near the Augusta Civic Center. Fine's Comfort Inn Civic Center has 99 rooms while the adjacent Holiday Inn has 102 rooms.

"We're excited about the opportunity to acquire this portfolio," Linchris CEO Christopher Gistis tells GlobeSt.com in acknowledging his Hanover-based firm has committed to the deal, with a closing anticipated by the end of the month. Until then, Gistis says he cannot discuss specifics such as pricing, and efforts to obtain a precise figure were unsuccessful. Calls to Fine Hotels officials at the firm's Wellesley headquarters were not returned by press deadline.

The transaction apparently involves Fine's remaining hotel portfolio, which according to company documents reached 10 properties after being founded by Gerald Fineberg in 1990. The most recent divestment came in May 2006 when the Holiday Inn Newton was bought by Normandy Real Estate Partners for $14.6 million. That 40-year-old hotel has since been recast as a boutique inn run by InterContinental Hotels Corp. Known as Indigo, that hotel is slated to open in January.