Williamsburg lodging REIT announces offering of common stock

Sotherly Hotels Inc. announced Monday that it has begun an underwritten public offering of up to 3 million shares of its common stock, at 1 cent par value per share.

The Williamsburg-based lodging real estate income trust (REIT) plans to grant underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 450,000 shares of its common stock.

The company said in a news release that it plans for the net proceeds from the offering to be used by Sotherly Hotels LP, its operating partnership, to fund the cash portion of its acquisition of the 75 percent interest in the Crowne Plaza Hollywood Beach Resort near Hollywood, Fla., that the company does not own.

If the acquisition does not occur, the proceeds would be used to fund other potential acquisitions, for repayment of existing debt and/or for general corporate purposes, including capital expenditures.

Sandler O'Neill + Partners, L.P. and JMP Securities LLC are acting as joint book-runners for the offering. Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc. is acting as lead manager and Boenning & Scattergood Inc. and J.J.B. Hilliard, W.L. Lyons LLC are acting as co-managers.

Sotherly Hotels trades on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol of SOHO. It is a self-managed and self-administered lodging REIT focused on the acquisition, renovation and repositioning of upscale hotels in the Southern U.S.

Currently, the company’s portfolio includes investments in 12 hotel properties, 11 of which are wholly-owned and have 2,698 rooms.  The company also has a 25 percent interest in the Crowne Plaza Hollywood Beach Resort.

Most of its properties operate under the Hilton Worldwide, InterContinental Hotels Group and Starwood Hotels and Resorts brands.