An East Coast trust that owns high-end hotels across the country is putting The Nines Hotel up for sale, according to documents obtained by WW.
An advising firm for Pebblebrook Hotel Trust wrote in the advertisement, which isn’t public yet, that it was “pleased to present the opportunity to acquire the fee simple interest in The Nines. Ideally situated just steps from Pioneer Square, the 331-key hotel has long been considered Portland’s leading hotel, offering best-in-class dining and meeting facility amenities, while also providing immediate access to the best leisure and corporate demand generators that Portland offers. This offering provides an excellent opportunity to acquire the premier asset in a West Coast gateway location with strong market and operational upside.”
Yesterday, the Portland Business Journal first reported that Pebblebrook had entered into a sales agreement for the Heathman Hotel, one of its three remaining hotels in Portland. Last fall, Pebblebrook sold the 117-room Hotel Vintage Portland. It still owns Hotel Zags, also in the heart of downtown.
Pebblebrook purchased The Nines, which is franchised under the umbrella of Marriott, in 2014 for $127 million. (The listing states that “the [Marriott] brand may be terminated with a fee, providing for the generational opportunity to both brand and manage one of the West Coast’s leading urban hotel assets.”)
The 15-story building used to house the headquarters of Meier & Frank and only became a hotel in 2008. The Nines—as its name would suggest—comprises nine floors of hotel rooms. The building also contains Google’s Portland headquarters on its first floor, along with several other offices spaces and two restaurants.
To be sure, it’s a difficult time to be in the hotel business. Travel restrictions during the pandemic gutted downtown hotels of their normal business and conference attendees, and Portland especially has been slow to recover from the pandemic.
Pebblebrook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.