NANA Regional Corp. sells four Anchorage hotels to focus on other business sectors

Nov. 22–An Alaska Native corporation said this week it has sold off four Anchorage hotels to focus on other sectors of its business.

NANA Regional Corp. said Monday that, along with joint owner Sodexo, it sold the Courtyard, Midtown Springhill Suites and Residence Inn — all Marriott hotels — to Anchorage real estate firm JL Properties. NANA also sold the University Lake SpringHill Suites, of which it was the full owner, to JL Properties. The sales were effective Nov. 7, NANA said in a statement.

Selling off nearly all of its hotels will allow NANA to focus on resource development, including the Red Dog Mine, and other areas, the company said.

"The NANA board of directors set a goal to increase profitability at NANA," NANA Regional President Wayne Westlake said in the statement. "Part of that strategy, as I shared at NANA's 2016 annual meeting, is to sell certain assets when the time is right. This was the right time and the right deal for NANA."

Last year, Moody's Investors Service downgraded NANA Regional's business arm, NANA Development Corp. Amy Hastings, NANA Regional spokeswoman, said last November that the regional corporation had "a bad couple years financially."

NANA and Sodexo opened the three jointly owned hotels in the late 1990s, and NANA opened the University Lake SpringHill Suites in the mid-2000s, the company said.

NANA did not disclose the sale prices. The corporation still owns the Nullagvik Hotel in Kotzebue.