Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. announced the preliminary results of its previously announced modified “Dutch Auction” tender offer (the “Offer”), which expired at 12:00 midnight, New York City time, on June 27, 2008.
In accordance with the terms and conditions of the Offer and based on the preliminary count by American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, the [...]

Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc. announced that it will provide an online audio simulcast of its presentation to the investment community at the Oppenheimer 8th Annual Consumer Growth Conference in Boston, July 8-10, 2008. The Company’s presentation will take place on Thursday, July 10, 2008, at 4:10 p.m. ET.
The live audio broadcast of Ashford Hospitality Trust’s [...]

MHI Hospitality Corporation announced that the Company has completed the acquisition of the 172-room former Radisson Hotel in Hampton, Virginia for approximately $7.75 million, or $45,000 per room. The Company has also entered into a 10-year franchise agreement with InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) [(LON: IHG) (NYSE: IHG - News; ADRs)] through its franchising entity, Holiday [...]

Hotel buyouts are proving a bonanza for mutual funds which snapped up Hilton, Marriott and other hotel stocks after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Private-equity firm Blackstone Group’s (BX.N) $20 billion bid for Hilton Hotels Corp. (HLT.N) on Tuesday sparked a 27 percent rise in shares of the second-biggest U.S. hotel chain over Thursday and Friday, [...]

The national and the local apartment vacancy rates, far apart in recent years, are much closer now.
Reis, Inc. (AMEX: WRP) a New York-based research firm, said the nation’s average apartment vacancy was 5.8 percent as of the end of the second quarter, down from 6 percent during the first three months of 2007 –reportedly the [...]

Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration has ordered private developers not to talk about plans for a huge new resort near Pinckneyville until Blagojevich himself can announce it, sources say.
Some lawmakers who support the project say that public relations directive could be endangering the proposal.
“People have asked, ‘If these (developers) are credible, why don’t they answer the [...]

Vector Hospitality, the hotel real estate investment trust (REIT), has had to cut its flotation price and delay the launch by 24 hours to get its £2 billion London listing off the ground.
The cut comes after pressure from institutions who voiced concerns over potential conflicts of interest in the role of director Richard Balfour-Lynn and [...]

Today represents a milestone for the Toronto International Film Festival, with the official groundbreaking for its long dreamed-of year-round home (known for now as Bell Festival Centre) on a parking lot at the corner of King and John Sts.
More than a thousand guests have been invited to a bubbly celebration at the Fairmont Royal York [...]

Concentration in the management sector of the apartment industry changed dramatically in 2006, according to the National Multi Housing Council’s (NMHC) 18th annual ranking of the top 50 apartment owners and top 50 apartment managers. Over the past 10 years, most of the concentration documented in NMHC’s rankings has been among apartment owners, but this [...]

American Spectrum Realty, Inc. announces that it has extended the tender offer to purchase 4.9% or 485,000 shares of Hartman Commercial Properties REIT to May 31, 2007.
American Spectrum Realty, Inc. cannot determine the financial burden that Hartman Commercial Properties REIT could encounter at this time, due to the uncertainty of the existing litigation between Hartman [...]

Columbia Equity Trust, Inc. announced that its stockholders approved the merger of Columbia with and into an affiliate of the Commingled Pension Trust Fund (Special Situation Property) of JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. at the special meeting of stockholders held today. On February 20, 2007, Columbia issued a press release announcing prorated dividends for the period [...]

Morningstar FundInvestor has joined the chorus of voices wary of real estate investment trusts.
In its February issue, the newsletter’s editor, Russell Kinnel, writes that REITs “have limited growth prospects and their stock prices have greatly surpassed their fair value.”
In fact, Morningstar’s stock analysts agree that “real estate is far and away the most overvalued asset.” [...]