Investor establishes hotel fund in anticipation of rebound.A Woodland Hills commercial real estate investment firm has amassed a $154 million equity pool it intends to leverage into a $500 million hotel portfolio over the next two years. The first acquisition by Younan Properties Inc., the $15 million purchase of a 377-room Holiday Inn Select in Dallas, is in escrow. The firm wants to buy other properties in Northern California Northern California, sometimes referred to as NorCal, is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The region contains the San Francisco Bay Area, the state capital, Sacramento; as well as the substantial natural beauty of the redwood forests, the northern , Texas, Florida, Chicago and New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Zaya Younan, chairman and chief executive. "Our roots are here and we want to grow in this market," he said. "The only thing that has prevented that is that properties are overpriced o·ver·price tr.v. o·ver·priced, o·ver·pric·ing, o·ver·pric·es To put too high a price or value on. overpriced Adjective costing more than it is thought to be worth Adj. in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, . It came to the point that we couldn't find the right properties at the right price and it forced us to look at other areas of the country." Younan, who started the company two years ago, said he raised the money internally, from institutional investors and from high networth individuals. He said the hotel market has started to crawl out of its hole after a two-year drop-off in travel and that the environment would allow me firm to capitalize on Cap´i`tal`ize on` v. t. 1. To turn (an opportunity) to one's advantage; to take advantage of (a situation); to profit from; as, to capitalize on an opponent's mistakes s>. the turnaround. "We feel we are entering the hospitality market at the right time," he said. "Our aim is to buy a tremendous portfolio of hotels going forward in the next two years." Since its founding, Younan Properties has spent $500 million buying more than 28 commercial buildings totaling 3.5 million square feet. Younan said entering the hospitality market is part of a larger goal of taking the company public as a real estate investment trust, and raising between $700 million and $1 billion to fuel further acquisitions. "It's an ambitious plan," he said, "but if you look at what we have accomplished in just two years it's a good indication of our potential and our future." |
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