Ethika Investments Allocates Capital for Acquisition of Los Angeles’ Marriott Warner Center

PR Newswire Association LLC

LOS ANGELES, July 29, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Ethika Investments, LLC, a U.S.-based real estate investment fund, has allocated capital for the acquisition of the Marriott Warner Center hotel in Los Angeles, CA. The 474-room hotel is at the heart of the master-planned Warner Center community in Woodland Hills, one of the largest commercial submarkets in the region. The acquisition presents Ethika's investors with an opportunity to benefit from an ideally located, full-service hotel with an attractive combination of current yield and value-add opportunities in a leading gateway market. This is the 12^th capital allocation from Ethika's Diversified Opportunity Real Estate Fund.

Ethika Investments Allocates Capital for the Acquisition of the Marriott Hotel at Warner Center in Los Angeles.

Woodland Hills is located in the heart of the San Fernando Valley, a rapidly expanding community that experienced a population growth of 6.2% between 2000 and 2013, with an additional 3.5% growth projected to occur by 2018. The Valley's current population accounts for nearly 50% of the population of the City of Los Angeles. The Marriott Warner Center enjoys an irreplaceable location directly next to the 2 million-square-foot Warner Center Towers complex in an office submarket with over 10.3 million square feet of space, enabling the hotel to capture a significant amount of corporate and group demand from a diverse tenant roster. Leading companies in the area include Farmers Insurance, KPMG, Sun America, Volkswagen of America, Anthem Wellpoint, Silgan Containers and Wells Fargo. In addition, the asset is located directly across the street from Westfield Promenade mall and a short distance from the 1.6 million-square-foot Westfield Topanga shopping center and the under construction, $350 millionVillage at Westfield Topanga.

The 16-story Marriott Warner Center features 474 spacious guestrooms, 22,000 square feet of dedicated indoor meeting space and 6,000 square feet of outdoor event space, in addition to four food and beverage facilities and an expansive array of amenities. The hotel has consistently achieved strong operating results driven by its dominant position in the market, outperforming its competitive set each year since 2007. Ethika's sponsor affiliate, Laurus Corporation, will execute a $10 million renovation to further enhance the property, as well as a variety of improvements to achieve greater guest satisfaction, increased market share and sustainable long-term growth.

"This investment in the Marriott Warner Center is an excellent reflection of the key attributes that we look for in the hospitality sector – institutional-quality properties in high barrier to entry markets which are currently underperforming due to their need for capital improvement and a fresh approach to management. Ethika's strength in financial structuring and transaction execution were key in successfully completing this acquisition," said Austin Khan, Chief Investment Officer of Ethika Investments.

"Ethika's capital allocation for this transaction reflects the continued strength of the firm's investment pipeline. With twelve acquisitions in the past eighteen months, our investors have a clear understanding of our ability to deploy in a manner targeted to our opportunistic and value-add investment strategies," added Talal Elass, Vice President of Fund Management of Ethika Investments.

Ethika Investments is a real estate investment firm formed to provide investors access to a unique platform by tactically investing in opportunistic real estate assets primarily in the United States. It is affiliated with Laurus Corporation, a real estate investment and development company that specializes in hotel & resorts, office buildings, multifamily and mixed-use properties.