A Binghamton, N.Y.-based hotel company has purchased the Graduate on Chapel Street for more than $10 million — marking the latest in the property’s transition from the single-room-occupancy Hotel Duncan into a boutique, college-themed hotel right at Yale’s doorstep. According to the pr operty’s new owner, this sale won’t affect the hotel’s current union contract with its workers. “We’re inheriting the union,” Vista Hospitality Co-Founder and CEO Amin Visram told the Independent. “We have a great relationship with them.” The sale itself was recorded on the city’s land records database on Friday. According to the relevant warranty deed, Vista New Haven Hotel Inc. purchased the six-story, 72-room hotel property at 1151 Chapel St. from Duncan New Haven Owner LLC. While the real estate conveyance tax printed on the deed indicates that the sale price was $8.65 million, Visram told the Independent that the total transaction cost was $10.65 million. Visram said that the $8.65 million price was for just the real estate. He said the $10.65 million total includes “everything in” the building, such as its furniture and fixtures. The city last appraised the property for tax purposes as worth $16,560,100. Also on Sept. 18, Vista New Haven Hotel Inc. received a $7,242,000 mortgage loan from Visions Federal Credit Union for the 1151 Chapel St. property. The hotel site last sold for $8 million in 2017. That’s when the Nashville-based investment and development firm AJ Capital Partners acquired the 1894-built SRO and began turning the building into a high-end hotel, sparking local debates about the loss of affordable housing downtown and the new hotel’s openness to union-organized staff. (Click here, here, here, here, here , and here for background). City officials and developers cut the ribbon on the reborn “Graduate New Haven” in October 2019. The hotel workers ratified their first union contract in 2022. They are currently represented by the union UNITE HERE Local 217. “This asset was very strategic for us,” said Vista Hospitality’s Amin Visram, whose company owns nearly a dozen hotels in New York, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Canada. “It is right at the Yale campus. It’s a great asset. It’s very beautifully put together. We felt it was a tremendous value.” Visram said that roughly 20 to 30 people work at the hotel, and that his company will be retaining nearly all of the staff. He stressed that the sale will not affect the hotel’s current union agreement. Josh Stanley, the secretary-treasurer of Local 217, said the same, noting that the union’s contract has a successor clause, meaning that it transfers over to the new owner. “We’re proud that our contract at the Graduate Hotel protects workers and maintains our contract when properties change hands,” Stanley said. Visram also noted that the Graduate is a Hilton-branded hotel. He said his company owns other Hilton-branded hotels — such as the Double Tree at JFK airport in New York. “We felt there was a tremendous amount of synergy” with this new location. “We are going to deploy capital,” likely between $1 million and $1.5 million over the next two years, to make different improvements to the building, Visram continued. “The property otherwise shines very well. It’s a busy property.” Why acquire this property now? Visram said that AJ Capital built more than 30 different college-themed boutique hotels across the country, including in New Haven. “Hilton has taken over all the franchise rights on that,” and AJ Capital has begun selling some of those properties. He said they’ve sold four so far — including in Tempe, Arizona, Cincinnati, Ohio, Providence, Rhode Island, and, now, New Haven. The post Duncan-To-Graduate Hotel Sold appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less