HEI Hotels & Resorts has been busy buying value-add hotel properties, in a range of deals that show how one of the hardest-hit commercial property sectors has turned into an arena of opportunity for those with means and know-how. Earlier this year, the independent Norwalk, CT-based hotel owner and operating company purchased the 309- room Sheraton Dallas North in Texas for roughly $10 million. The Northern Dallas property was its second hotel acquisition of 2011, its sixth under Starwood's Sheraton brand and HEI's 34th owned hotel.

The deal speaks volumes about HEI's capacity to capitalize on well-located value-add opportunities. Built in 1979, the property was renovated in 2009 and features 14,000 square feet of newly renovated meeting space, a full-service restaurant, fitness center, indoor/outdoor swimming pools, a club lounge, dry cleaning service and shuttle service within the surrounding area, among other things.

HEI acquired the hotel out of REO directly from a lender that foreclosed on the property back in March 2010. The lender was Wells Fargo, via its acquisition of Wachovia, according to John Bourett, director in HFF's Dallas office, who, along with senior managing director Dan Peek, marketed the distressed property exclusively on behalf of the seller.