The new owner of the Hilton New Orleans on St. Charles Avenue is a $10 billion New York City real estate investment group, which moved into hotels just over two years ago and has since spent nearly $300 million acquiring 15 hotels nationwide.
Certares Management paid $47 million for its latest purchase, the Hilton New Orleans, a 252-room hotel that was originally built in 1926 as a Masonic Temple in the city’s Central Business District, according to the sales contract, a copy of which was seen by the Times-Picayune.
The company now lists the Hilton New Orleans on its website along with the other 14 hotels it has purchased since it started in early 2023, when it paid just under $54 million for the 263-room Sea Crest Beach Hotel in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Certares didn’t respond to requests for comment about its plans for the Hilton New Orleans. But industry experts say the firm’s purchase of the hotel suggests that investors with deep pockets are bullish on the future of the local hospitality industry.
Investment strategy
In announcing the sale of the Hilton New Orleans on Tuesday, the former owner, Sunstone Hotel Investors of California, said they chose to sell the hotel at a loss rather than make the investment needed to keep the hotel competitive. Sunstone bought the property in 2013 for $59.35 million.
Certares has partnered in several of its purchases with hotel management groups HEI Hotels & Resorts or Hersha Hospitality Management. Deals with the latter have included the Sea Crest as well as both the Courtyard and Carté hotels in downtown San Diego.
When they purchased the Carté last July, Nolan Hecht, Certares’ head of real estate and lead of the firm’s hotel group, said it was consistent with the firm’s strategy “to acquire high quality experiential real estate in growing major markets.”
Hecht also said the company plans to buy “clusters” of hotel assets in markets where it is present.
Waitress Deseree Tavceda, center, serves a customer at chef John Besh’s restaurant Luke inside the Hilton New Orleans/St. Charles Avenue, 333 St Charles Ave., in the downtown New Orleans. (Photo by Chris Granger, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)
The firm’s other hotel buys have been in Atlanta, Miami, San Antonio, Tampa, Sonoma and Washington D.C. They have all been under the Hilton, Marriott (Courtyard/Le Méridien), Embassy Suites, and Curio by Hilton brands.
The Hilton New Orleans has an indoor pool and an “executive club lounge,” but is best known for its restaurant, Luke, a Creole-style brasserie that is part of BRG Hospitality, chef John Besh’s group.
Certares was founded by Greg O’Hara, a former JP Morgan investment banker and a leading voice in the hospitality industry. He is currently chair of industry groups World Travel & Tourism Council and American Express Global Business Travel, a Certares joint venture with the credit card company.
The firm’s other investments have included airlines like Azul and LATAM, cruise ship operators such as AmaWaterways and car rentals firms.
