EVANSTON—The outlook for the nation's hotels has begun to brighten as the economy recovers, and that has begun to attract an increasing number of investors. The Dow Hotel Company, LLC, for example, has just acquired, in a joint venture with The Carlyle Group's Carlyle Realty Partners VI, the 269-room Hilton Orrington hotel in Evanston. DHC will operate the hotel and complete an approximately $6 million upgrade over the next 12 months. They will focus on improving the guest rooms, corridors, an upscale lounge, and the meeting and other public spaces.

"This is our third transaction with The Carlyle Group, and we look forward to building on our relationship, as well as with our other institutional investors," says Murray Dow, president of the Seattle-based DHC. "We finally are seeing a substantial number of attractive, quality, full-service properties coming to market and have one of the most active pipelines in our company's 15-year history. We expect the next several years will create strong growth, including acquisitions, joint ventures, and third-party management, as well as improved returns from our current 13-hotel portfolio.”

The property was renovated in 2004 and got further upgrades when it was branded a Hilton in 2010. Located at 1710 Orrington Ave., the hotel features a 12,000-square-foot conference center, a 20,000-square-foot ballroom and other meeting spaces capable of serving up to 550 guests, a 173-space parking garage, a business center and retail shops.