ATLANTA — Inland American Lodging Advisor, an affiliate of Inland American Real Estate Trust, has disposed of a five-property hotel portfolio for approximately $24 million. The portfolio contains a total of 756 rooms. The properties include the Comfort Suites in Orlando; Comfort Inn Medical Park and Comfort Inn University in Durham, N.C.; Hampton Inn Crabtree Valley in Raleigh, N.C.; and Comfort Inn Riverview in Charleston, S.C. Arpit Shah and Dipan Patel of CB Richard Ellis' (CBRE) Atlanta-based Hotels Group represented the seller.

While the hospitality markets remains slow as a whole, Shah, who is a vice president with CBRE Hotels Group, notes that each of the five hotels is in a stable area. The North Carolina hotels benefit from the Research Triangle's universities, office parks and the area's high quality of life. The Charleston property is located right across the street from the VA medical center and near historic downtown Charleston. The Orlando property benefits from the city's tourism industry as well as its location across the interstate from the Orange County Convention Center.

"They all have their locational benefits," Shah adds.

Separate buyer groups acquired each property. Acquisition financing was procured through relationship lending, which Shah thinks will be the main source of hotel financing in the near-term. With regional and national banks staying away from the smaller hospitality purchases right now, smaller banks and lenders with prior relationships to the buyer will be the primary avenue to get deals done.

Inland first acquired the portfolio in 2007 as part of its acquisition of Winston Hotels. This deal represents the first disposition by Inland American Lodging Advisor, which is a public, non-traded REIT.

— Coleman Wood