Ownership of Albany Marriott changes hands
The Albany Marriott on Wolf Road is one of the largest hotels in the region.
By Mike Demasi / ABR
August 13, 2025
Story Highlights
- Albany Marriott ownership transferred to debt servicer.
- The hotel remains open for business.
- Hotel’s appraised value fell from $65 million in 2016 to $40 million in December 2024.
Ownership of the Albany Marriott, one of the largest hotels in the region, is now in the hands of a debt servicer in what appears to be a deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure transaction.
The 360-room full-service hotel at 189 Wolf Road in Colonie — which first opened 40 years ago — remains open for business.
There were cars in the parking lot Tuesday and reservations are still being accepted.
Columbia Sussex Corp. of Crestview Hills, Kentucky, had operated the hotel but the property isn’t listed in the portfolio on the company’s website.
Chief Financial Officer Kenloch “Wes” Westberry IV, who signed a “bargain and sale” deed filed Aug. 8 in the Albany County clerk’s office, didn’t return calls for comment.
Ownership was transferred to an LLC in care of Greystone Servicing Co. of Irving, Texas.
Greystone declined to comment, as did the hotel’s local management office.
The Albany Marriott on Wolf Road opened 40 years ago. Mike Demasi | ABR
Greystone served as a special servicer for the commercial mortgage-backed security in which the debt for the hotel had been assigned in 2016, according to financial filings made to bondholders and a filing in the clerk’s office.
A special servicer is assigned when a CMBS loan goes into default or there is some other breach in the terms. In the case of the Albany Marriott, that happened in April 2020, after the Covid-19 pandemic hit, according to the financial filings.
The special servicer can do several things to resolve a distressed loan, including modifying the terms, facilitating a sale to pay off the debt, initiating foreclosure proceedings, or accepting a deed in lieu of foreclosure in exchange for canceling the loan, according to Trepp, a real estate data firm.
According to the financial filings for the Albany Marriott CMBS, the “workout code” for the loan was a “deed in lieu of” that was scheduled to occur this month.
The Albany Business Review spoke to two local experienced commercial real estate attorneys who weren’t involved in the transaction but were told about or shown the deed that was filed in the clerk’s office. The attorneys said it was, or was likely, a deed in lieu of foreclosure rather than an arms-length transaction given the circumstances.
Chuck Cronin of Axiom Capital, a veteran commercial real estate financier also not involved in the transaction, said it appeared to him the lender took back the property. Greystone, or the lender, could subsequently sell the hotel but that wouldn’t necessarily be recorded publicly depending on how the deal is structured, he said.
The rear of the Albany Marriott at 189 Wolf Road in Colonie. Mike DeMasi | ABR
According to the deed filing, Greystone paid $189,052 in real estate transfer taxes to New York, which is the equivalent of a purchase price of $47.26 million, based on the state’s tax formula. Transfer taxes must be paid for a deed in lieu of foreclosure, the attorneys said.
The hotel’s original mortgage with Morgan Stanley in 2016 was for $45.5 million, according to financial filings. The outstanding balance was $37.8 million.
The hotel’s appraised value fell from $65 million in 2016 to $40 million in December 2024, according to financial filings.
The most recent financial filing made to bondholders in July included these details about the property: “Borrower does not wish to continue ownership and engaged a broker to sell the hotel. The property was marketed in late 2024 but the marketing efforts were halted at the broker’s recommendation due to uncertainty surrounding proposed union labor laws in New York City. The marketing efforts were re-started in January 2025. As of May 2025, a buyer is being considered with negotiations underway.”
Mitchell Muroff, a veteran hotel broker at Muroff Hospitality Group in Newton, Massachusetts, has done many deals in New York.
He wasn’t aware of the transaction involving the Albany Marriott but said most full-service hotels — other than those in a resort or vacation destination — aren’t performing as well today as they did pre-Covid due to the decline in banquets and meetings.
“The hotels that are performing best are limited-service and select-service,” Muroff said.