Morgan Stanley to buy CNL Hotels

Morgan Stanley agreed to buy CNL Hotels & Resorts Inc. for $6.6 billion, including debt, adding to its holdings eight luxury U.S. resorts including La Quinta Resort & Club and PGA West in La Quinta, Calif.

CNL, based in Orlando, Fla., also will sell its remaining 51 properties to Ashford Hospitality Trust Inc. for $2.4 billion, the companies said in a statement. That sum is included in Morgan Stanley’s purchase price.

Morgan Stanley, the biggest real estate investor among Wall Street firms, will gain several properties in Hilton’s Waldorf Astoria collection, including the Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa in Maui and the Doral Golf Resort & Spa in Miami, where PGA Tour events are played. In November, the securities firm began raising as much as $8 billion for funds to invest in high-yielding real estate.

“These are big assets, large chunks of real estate, famous names,” said Arthur de Haast, global chief executive of Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels. “I’m sure Morgan Stanley has worked out a strategy to enhance the assets, restructure debt and eventually sell the assets in two to three years.”

Shares of Morgan Stanley rose 29 cents to $81.50. Ashford jumped 33 cents to $12.37.

Morgan Stanley is also buying the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa in Phoenix; the Ritz-Carlton Orlando and JW Marriott Orlando at the Grande Lake Resorts; the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa in Phoenix; and the Claremont Resort & Spa in Berkeley.