Following up on this June blog post, the U.S. Army and its private sector partner Actus Lend Lease have reached financial close on the first contract for its new lodging privatization program. As The Wall Street Journal reports:
Australian property developer Lend Lease Corp. (LLC.AU) said Monday that its Actus unit and the U.S. Army have reached financial close on the first phase of the US$125 million (A$151 million) privatization of their Lodging Group A program. […]
Group A involves the refurbishment and management of 62 facilities across 10 installations and 3,200 rooms, and upon completion the portfolio will operate branded hotels under select IHG brand flags, the company said.
Actus Lend Lease will perform planning, development and asset management services related to the redevelopment of these properties, at which point lodging operations will be assumed by Intercontinental Hotels Group, the parent company of Holiday Inn and several other hotel brands.
For more on this initiative, and the successful military housing privatization initiative that spawned it, see Reason Foundation’s Annual Privatization Report 2009.