Hilton Garden financing deal completed

10/28/2011

Back in January, Massachusetts-based Worcester Business Development Corporation received 504 SBA loan approvals to acquire undeveloped land in Devens to construct a Hilton Garden Inn.

Working with Webster Five Cents Savings, WBDC will use the hotel financing to fund the $17.5 million project. By doing so, it became the first loan in the state to take advantage President Barack Obama's September 2010 Small Business Jobs and Credit Act, which increased borrowing caps from $2 million to $5 million.

WBDC and Webster will use the maximum $5 million for the hotel, which will contain 118 rooms and create approximately 80 jobs.

"This was a complicated deal to complete, given the challenges of financing a hotel in a down economy," Craig L. Blais, executive vice president of the WBDC, said in a news release quoted by the Telegram.

The hotel is already under construction, and is scheduled to open by mid-November. In order to streamline the deal, WBDC waived a portion of the developer's fee.

According to HGI's website, it's planning on opening 75 new hotels across the U.S. this year, as well as 11 more in Europe and Asia.