The Hollywood Heights Hotel is being converted into the tourist area’s first Hilton Garden Inn, a Hilton Hotels Corp. brand known for its open courtyards and boutique feel.

The 160-room, seven-story hotel on Highland Avenue near the Hollywood Bowl was purchased in December by RLJ Lodging Trust of Bethesda, Md., from L.A.’s CIM Group LP. It had been operated by the Holiday Inn as the Hollywood Walk of Fame hotel until 2008, when it was converted to the Hollywood Heights Hotel.

The purchase price was undisclosed, but CoStar Group estimates the building’s value at $21 million.

The Hilton Garden Inn is a midprice hotel chain, comparable with Marriott’s Courtyard brand. Other Hilton Garden Inns in Los Angeles are in Calabasas, Montebello, Pasadena, El Segundo, Valencia and Palmdale.

“Having this opportunity to capture such a unique area as Hollywood within the brand is truly a little treasure,” said Alan Roberts, Hilton Garden Inn’s vice president of brand performance and support.

The hotel at 2005 N. Highland Ave. was built in 1976.

Renovation plans call for construction of an airy courtyard pavilion and large windows. Interior upgrade plans include outfitting guest rooms with the brand’s large desks and chairs.

The hotel restaurant, now called the Hideout, will be converted into a Great American Grill, the standard restaurant of Hilton Garden Inns. The hotel will stay open during construction, which is scheduled for completion by next May.

The hotel is one of 10 nationwide that RLJ is converting this year into Hilton Garden Inns. There are more than 500 Hilton Garden Inns in 12 countries.

“The rebranding of this property will induce new customers that in the past have not come to the market,” said Jeff Lugosi, Colliers PKF Consulting hospitality analyst. “I think it’s going to be very successful. The Hilton Garden Inn is one of the top focused-service brands in the market today.”

Data Deal

The demand for data center properties continues.

T5 Partners in Atlanta bought a data center in El Segundo this month for roughly $30 million from Base Partners Inc., a San Francisco developer.

The one-story, 121,586-square-foot building at 444 Nash St. will be redeveloped into a data office center with a raised floor and powerful transformer on the property. The internal structure that houses the building’s power source will be expanded, and the building will be prepared for tenants that need between 2,500 square feet and 72,000 square feet.

El Segundo is already home to large data centers owned by San Francisco’s Digital Realty Trust and Redwood City’s Equinix.

El Segundo offers cheaper power rates then downtown Los Angeles, a key consideration for data center operators, said Chris Strickfaden, a managing director at Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., which represented Base Partners.

“Jones Lang LaSalle was able to achieve a premium price for Base Partners by showing investors the potential of this property as a premier facility for data center users in Southern California,” Strickfaden said.

Also representing the seller at Jones Lang were Steve Solomon, managing director, and Curt Holcolmb, senior vice president. The buyer was represented in-house.

Nifty Profit

Broadreach Capital Partners has sold a 157,000-square-foot office building in El Segundo that serves as the North American corporate headquarters of BT Infonet, a voice and data networking subsidiary of British Telecom.

The building was acquired this month for $51.2 million by GLL Properties Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of GLL Real Estate Partners Inc., a Munich, Germany, real estate funds management group.

Broadreach had acquired the three-story Class A building at 2160 E. Grand Ave. for $45.5 million from British Telecom in a 2006 sale-lease-back deal when the telecom giant was divesting itself of noncore assets. BT Infonet’s lease expires in 2021.

The headquarters was one of the first of a new generation of high-tech buildings when it opened in 2000. Among other features, it has redundant backup systems and raised flooring that can hold more than 200 miles of cable.

“We were able to provide BT with a viable solution to some of its complex corporate real estate issues during their period of reorganization (several years ago) and it proved to be a profitable investment for Broadreach,” said David Simon, the company’s managing director.

Broadreach was represented in the transaction by Eastdill Secured. GLL Properties represented itself in-house.

Staff reporter Jacquelyn Ryan can be reached at [email protected], or (323) 549-5225, ext. 228.