Barings Provides $115 Million Refinancing for Renaissance Boston Seaport Hotel

December 17, 2024 at 09:00 AM EST

Barings, one of the world’s largest diversified real estate investment managers, announced today that it has provided a $115 million loan to refinance the Renaissance Boston Seaport Hotel (“the Hotel”) in Boston. A joint venture between affiliates of Rockpoint, Highgate and hotelAVE (its asset manager) has owned the Hotel since 2015.

“We are pleased to provide this financing for Rockpoint, Highgate and hotelAVE,” said Jonathan Neff, Managing Director with Barings. “Fundamentals in the Boston hotel market continue to improve with limited new supply entering the market in the near term. The Renaissance is well positioned to benefit from its strategic location, surrounded by diverse demand drivers, including a concentration of Boston’s top employers, the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, and numerous destination retail and entertainment outlets.”

The Renaissance Boston Seaport Hotel is located at 606 Congress Street in the heart of the Seaport District overlooking Boston Harbor. The Hotel was built in 2008 and will complete a comprehensive renovation in 2025. The 471-room Hotel features nearly 21,000 square feet of flexible meeting space, a 10,700 square foot ballroom, club lounge with harbor views, recently renovated fitness center, indoor swimming pool, and several food and beverage outlets.

Eastdil Secured advised the sponsorship on the financing from Barings.

This transaction expands Barings’ 23.4+ billion* real estate debt platform, which leverages the team’s broad direct origination capabilities and deep credit expertise to invest in loans secured by institutional-quality commercial real estate.

About Barings

Barings is a $431+ billion* global asset management firm that partners with institutional, insurance, and intermediary clients, and supports leading businesses with flexible financing solutions. The firm, a subsidiary of MassMutual, seeks to deliver excess returns by leveraging its global scale and capabilities across public and private markets in fixed income, real assets and capital solutions.

*Assets under management as of September 30, 2024

About Rockpoint

Rockpoint is a real estate private equity firm that employs a fundamental value approach to investing, targeting select product types and markets throughout the United States. The firm applies a consistent and disciplined investment approach across its investment programs, which span distinct return profiles. Rockpoint continually assesses market opportunities and evaluates potential investments relative to intrinsic value, replacement cost, and cash flow, targeting investments that Rockpoint believes are inefficiently priced or misunderstood by the broader market. Rockpoint proactively pursues opportunities that exhibit strong value potential that can be realized through impactful asset management. Since 1994, the firm’s co-founders with others have sponsored 19 investment vehicles and related co-investment vehicles through Rockpoint and a predecessor firm and have invested or committed to invest in 503 transactions with a total peak capitalization of approximately $80 billion. To learn more, visit www.rockpoint.com.

About Highgate

Highgate is a leading global real estate investment and hospitality management company widely recognized as an innovator in the industry. Highgate is the dominant player in major U.S. gateway cities including New York, Boston, Miami, San Francisco and Honolulu, with a growing footprint in Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America. The hospitality forward company provides expert guidance through all stages of the property cycle, from planning and development through recapitalization or disposition. Highgate has a proven record of developing its diverse portfolio of bespoke lifestyle hotel brands, legacy brands, and independent hotels and resorts with contemporary programming and digital acumen. The company utilizes industry-leading revenue management tools that efficiently identify and predict evolving market dynamics to drive outperformance and maximize asset value. With an executive team consisting of some of the most experienced hotel management leaders, the company is a trusted partner for top ownership groups and major hotel brands. Highgate maintains corporate offices in New York, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, Seattle, Waikiki, London and Lisbon. Highgate.com.

About hotelAve

Hotel Asset Value Enhancement, Inc. (hotelAVE) is a leading international hotel owner, advisor and asset management firm, with a legacy of strong performance for our partners, owners and lenders of 1,700+ hotels with more than 400,000 rooms, representing over $160 billion of hotel real estate value. The company, founded by Michelle Russo in 2003, has 48 professionals overseeing its current asset management portfolio comprised of over 80 hotels and $12.5 billion in assets under management. The firm advises on an additional $10 billion of hotel real estate annually. hotelAVE uses a highly data driven and comprehensive approach, which is supported by a proprietary business intelligence & analytics platform. For more information on hotelAVE, please visit www.hotelAVE.com.

About Eastdil Secured

With a combination of capital markets expertise and in-depth understanding of real estate fundamentals, Eastdil Secured delivers advice on mergers and acquisitions, sales, joint ventures, debt placement, structured credit and loan sales to investors around the world. Headquartered in New York, Eastdil Secured has a broad global footprint to support clients with offices across the United States in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, Orange County, San Francisco, Seattle, Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C., and internationally in Dubai, Dublin, Frankfurt, London, Milan, Paris, Hong Kong and Tokyo. For more information on Eastdil Secured, please visit https://www.eastdilsecured.com