Hyatt Regency Long Island sold in $26.5 million deal

The Hyatt Regency Long Island in Hauppauge has sold for $26.5 million in a deal that will shift ownership of one of the region's largest hotels.

Ashford Hospitality Trust, a Dallas-based real estate investment trust, sold the 358-room hotel to two limited liability companies on July 31, according to a Thursday filing by Ashford with the Securities Exchange Commission.

It's unclear who owns the companies purchasing the property — ABGHLI2613 LLC and TIC Owner Hyatt LLC — both of which registered with the New York Department of State in June.

Ashford, which owns more than 50 hotel properties around the country, including Embassy Suites, Marriott and Hilton-branded hotels, has been selling properties amid concerns it will have insufficient cash to pay $1.9 billion in debt that will come due in the next year, according to a March earnings report.

Ashford's stock price has fallen nearly 98% over the past five years to just $3.20 as of Monday's market close, and the total value of the company’s share was about $21 million.

“We continue to aggressively refine our hotel portfolio through strategic divestitures," Stephen Zsigray, president and CEO of Ashford, said in an April statement.

Ashford, Hyatt and the hotel's general manager did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.

Long Island has seen a wave of new hotel proposals in recent years in response to rising demand, and at least 10 hotels were planned or under construction last year, Newsday previously reported.

Travel has been a positive contributor to the Long Island economy, as consumers continue to spend on experiences, said Steven Kent, an economics professor at Molloy University.

Hyatt Regency Long Island also has 18,000 square feet of event space for weddings and conferences. Its largest ballroom has capacity for 1,000 guests, according to the hotel’s website.

The hotel, at 1717 Motor Pkwy., about 7 miles from Long Island MacArthur Airport, includes an indoor and outdoor pool and Nu Restaurant and Lounge. It neighbors the semi-private Wind Watch Golf & Country Club and Carlow Wind Watch, a 150-unit luxury apartment complex that opened in 2024.

The Hyatt Regency offers a rare opportunity to acquire one of Long Island’s largest hotels with additional revenue from events, Kent said.

“This is a real full-service hotel and that is appealing because it can do meetings, weddings and conventions and all of the attendees can stay in the hotel,” he said.

Real estate brokers who specialize in the hospitality industry said the $26.5 million sale price, or about $74,000 per room, suggests the next owner will need to complete substantial renovations to update the hotel, which opened in 1989.

Newer hotels can sell for far higher multiples of hundreds of thousands of dollars per room, said Mitchell Muroff, owner and broker of Muroff Hospitality, which brokered the sale of the Grove Hotel and Fire Island Pines commercial district.

“For a large, full-service meeting hotel like this to remain competitive, it would have to spend a lot of money to get back to where it was, with a new owner doing a significant property improvement plan,” Muroff said.

Developing a hotel at the scale of the Hyatt Regency Long Island would cost far more than the sale price, said Daniel Lesser, president and CEO of LW Hospitality Advisors in Manhattan, who was an adviser on the deal but declined to disclose the buyer.

“It’s an underserved market,” Lesser said of Long Island's hotel industry. “Developing new hotels is not an easy proposition on Long Island."

It's unclear whether the next owner will continue to operate the hotel under the Hyatt Regency brand. Chicago-based Hyatt licenses its brand to hotels around the world in exchange for licensing and franchise fees.

Other Hyatt hotels on Long Island include Hyatt Place properties in Garden City and Riverhead.

By Jonathan LaMantia

jonathan.lamantia@newsday.com@jonlamantia

Jonathan LaMantia covers residential real estate and other business news on Long Island. He previously covered the business of health care for Crain's New York Business.