Hotel Lotte will operate a 189-room hotel in The Mark in downtown Seattle, U.S. [Image provided by Hotel Lotte]

Hotel Lotte will open a hotel in downtown Seattle, which would be its 12th addition to its hotel family outside South Korea.

Hotel Lotte said Sunday the company and Hana Financial Investment have jointly signed a deal to purchase a hotel at The Mark in Seattle, U.S. from U.S. private equity fund Stockbridge at $175 million via a real estate investment trust (REIT). The five-star hotel will start operation in June next year under the new name “Lotte Hotel Seattle” with the Korean hotel giant as a consigned manager.

The hotel, occupying 16 floors of a 44-story The Mark building in Seattle, has a total of 189 rooms including 31 suites. It is located about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and close to regional/head offices of big corporate names such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Starbucks in downtown Seattle.

With the addition of Hotel Lotte Seattle, Hotel Lotte will have a total of 32 hotels and resorts globally – 20 in Korea and 12 overseas.

The deal marks as the first of the Korean hotel company’s joint investment with a financial institution.

Lotte Hotel and Hana Financial Investment in September entered into an agreement to collaborate on overseas hotel expansion. They created a fund to set up the REIT, which purchased the hotel in Seattle. Hotel Lotte’s share of the investment is 30 percent.

The Korean hotel said it would earn dividends from the REIT investment as well as income from Lotte Hotel Seattle’s consignment operation.

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