Highway 109 hotel fetches $2.3 million

December 13, 2005
A New York-based health care management company's foray into the hospitality industry led to Wilson County earlier this month when the company purchased the Lebanon Sleep Inn & Suites off Highway 109 for $2.33 million.
On Dec. 1, Hamister Hospitality Group LLC purchased the Sleep Inn & Suites at 150 S. Eastgate Court from Eastgate Hotel Associates LLC, according to documents on file in the Wilson County Register of Deeds office.
Built in 2003, the 73-room hotel is now one of three in the Nashville market owned by Hamister Hospitality and the company's fourth hotel in Tennessee.
Until last year, the Hamister Group Inc. largely focused its efforts on the assisted living and health care management sectors. According to the company's website, the company "expanded its tradition of outstanding customer service into the hospitality industry with the creation of Hamister Hospitality Group LLC, a hospitality management group and hotel acquisition company."
And while Hamister Hospitality was not formed until 2004, the company began its research of the hotel industry in 1981 to incorporate hotel features into its assisted living and skilled living facilities. The company's primary objective, the website reads, "is the acquisition of select service and full service hotels in the eastern half of the United States."
In October 2004, the company acquired its first two hotels, both in Smyrna. The transaction included the 63-room Nashville Smyrna Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriot and 76-room Nashville Smyrna Sleep Inn & Suites by Choice Hotels.
Hamister Hospitality's third purchase came in August when the company bought the 80-room Knoxville Airport Mainstay Suites in Alcoa. One month later, the company purchased a 63-room Sleep Inn roughly two miles from the Louisville Airport in Kentucky.
A spokesperson for Hamister Hospitality could not be reached for comment Monday, but Hamister's website described the lodging sector as a "primary focus for the next few years."
"We anticipate purchasing five to 10 hotels per year for the next five years or more," a statement on the company's website reads.
Hamister's goal, according to the site, is to pursue hotels with a minimum of 70 rooms in "smaller population markets … with strong travel attractions which are stable and growing."
On the Net:
The Hamister Group - http://www.hamistergroup.com
Staff Writer Brian Harville can be reached at 444-3952 ext. 16 or by e-mail at brian.harville@lebanondemocrat.com.