Area hospitality industry sources tell GlobeSt.com the per-roomprice was far below typical replacement cost today of about$100,000 per room for a comparable property. Howard A. Silver,Equity's president and CEO, and J. Mitchell Collins, chieffinancial officer, didn't return GlobeSt.com's phone calls to learnhow long Equity had owned the property and what the occupancy levelwas at closing.

However, in a prepared statement, Silver says the deal was donebecause "the transaction is consistent with our strategy of thetimely sales of properties when they no longer provide thelong-term growth opportunity of our core portfolio." He says that"as a 20-year-old hotel, this sale also helps to reduce the averageof our portfolio."

The REIT owns 126 hotels with 15,027 rooms in 36 states. Silversays the disposition price "equates to a capitalization rate ofapproximately 4%, based on trailing 12 months net operatingincome."