La Quinta Inn near Cleveland airport was part of $1.5 billion hospitality deal

A 115-room La Quinta Inn & Suites on Cleveland’s West Side is in new hands as part of a major hospitality transaction.

The local property was included in the $1.5 billion sale of CorePoint Lodging Inc., a real estate investment trust that owns roughly 160 hotels scattered across the country. On March 3, hotel manager Highgate and private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, both based in New York, bought CorePoint in an all-cash deal.

A Highgate executive verified by email that the La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham Cleveland Airport-North was part of that portfolio. It is the only Northeast Ohio hotel listed on CorePoint’s website.

CoStar Group, a real estate data provider, updated its records early this month to show a $5.16 million sale price for the Cleveland hotel. But it’s unclear where that number came from.

The transaction does not appear in Cuyahoga County real estate filings. A CoStar representative did not respond to an inquiry about the data, and Highgate did not answer detailed questions about the property.

Located at 4222 West 150th St., the hotel sits east of the Puritas Rapid station, on land owned by the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority. An RTA official confirmed that the hotel, built in the early 1990s, is subject to a long-term ground lease.

The La Quinta’s general manager did not return phone calls about the Highgate deal and any resulting operational changes. As part of the sale of the company, CorePoint agreed to terminate its hotel management contracts with Wyndham Hotels & Resorts Inc., which owns the La Quinta brand.

CorePoint, based in Texas, was formed in 2018 to separate La Quinta’s real estate from the brand’s franchise and management business. The company, publicly traded until early this month, once owned more than 300 hotels but started shedding properties in 2019 in an effort to raise cash and cut debt.

Highgate, best known as an operator of more upscale hotels and resorts, launched a division this month focused on select-service, limited-service and extended-stay hotels.

“We are very bullish on this sector of the hospitality business,” Rob Dann, Highgate Select’s chief operating officer, said in an interview with Hotels magazine. “We have a great platform that we’ve built. We’re looking for acquisitions, and we think we can do a great job with third-party management, as well.”

The hard-hit hospitality industry is picking up from its pandemic-induced slump, with leisure travel leading the recovery. Across the country, limited-service and extended-stay hotels generally fared better during 2020 and 2021 than their full-service and luxury counterparts.