South Korean Firm Buys Normandy Hotel In Kalorama For Covid Discount
A South Korean hospitality firm has acquired a boutique hotel in D.C.'s Kalorama neighborhood.
An affiliate of Sono Hospitality acquired The Normandy Hotel from an affiliate of Santa Barbara-based Blu Hotel Investors in a $14.6M deal, according to D.C. property records.
The total sale price of a hotel property can sometimes differ from the price recorded in D.C. deed records. Blu Hotel Investors declined to comment on the sale.
Blu acquired the 75-room hotel in 2017 from a joint venture of Modus Hotels and Alex. Brown Realty Inc., the Washington Business Journal reported.
Property records indicated the sale price was $15.5M, though Blu manager Michael Barnard told WBJ at the time that the deal was higher without giving a number. He said the hotel would undergo renovations after Blu acquired it.
The Normandy Hotel previously sold for $16M in 2013. Hotel prices saw a steep drop during the pandemic, and hospitality REITs saw revenue decline by hundreds of millions of dollars, though those numbers are beginning to pick back up.
Sono owns 16 hotels in South Korea with approximately 10,000 rooms, according to its website. It also owns various resort and entertainment properties. It is unclear if this is Sono's first U.S. property.
