Loews Back Bay Hotel Sells For $117M, To Be Converted To Boston's First AKA Hotel
The former Loews Boston Hotel has sold for $116.6M, according to property records.
The buyer was Electra America Hospitality Group, a joint venture fund between Electra America and extended-stay company AKA. The firms plan a $20M rebrand and renovation of the 225-room, 73K SF hotel, according to a press release.
EAHG was launched in February 2021 and raised $725M to focus on acquisitions of independent hotels in major gateway markets like New York City, Miami and Los Angeles.
"All of our acquisitions are opportunistic with tremendous upside, some require complete repositioning, and some just some modest physical improvements; the Back Bay property falls into the later category," EAHG CEO Russ Urban said in an email statement to Bisnow.
The hotel, which is located at 154 Berkeley St., will be renamed Hotel AKA Back Bay. It is the first Boston hotel in this AKA and EAHG joint venture.
The renovations will happen while the hotel is operating and will occur floor-by-floor. Although there is no certain deadline for completion, AKA CEO Larry Korman told Bisnow that the company plans to get much of the project completed in 2023.
The hotel is slated to receive updates to the restaurant on the premises, a second-floor fitness center, spa room, theater and a new rooftop terrace. The property was built in the mid-1920s and acted as the Boston Police Department's headquarters until 1990.
This is the joint venture's sixth hotel acquisition in the past 18 months, which includes One Washington Circle Hotel in Washington, D.C., and the Conrad Miami hotel in Miami.
