Chinese firm buys L.A. Marriott

Shenzhen New World Group Co. buys the 469-room hotel out of foreclosure for an estimated $60 million, about half of what it sold for in 2007. Shenzhen plans to invest $13 million in upgrades.

The Los Angeles Marriott Downtown has been purchased out of foreclosure by a Chinese real estate development company that vows to improve the aging hotel, which caters to business travelers.

Shenzhen New World Group Co. got the 469-room hotel at 3rd and Figueroa streets at a substantial discount from its previous sale price as the country’s hotel market continues to reel from recession woes.

The price was not formally disclosed, but industry experts believe Shenzhen paid $60 million, according to consultant Alan Reay of Atlas Hospitality Group. It was last sold in 2007 — when the hotel business was booming — for as much as $115 million to Los Angeles investment company Namco Capital Group.

Hotel industry revenue began to plummet in October 2008 as the economy soured, and lender GE Capital foreclosed on the downtown Marriott last summer. GE completed the sale to Shenzhen on Wednesday, said Vance Baugham, president of the World Trade Center Assn. Los Angeles-Long Beach, which advised Shenzhen during the acquisition.  Click here for full article from the  LA Times online…