Another week, another hotel deal in Nashville (seems like that, anyway): the 383-room Holiday Inn Nashville Airport fetched more than $31M. Hotel fundamentals here are strong, and investors are all too aware of it.

"Demand remains strong and the outlook is very positive for Nashville," HREC Investment Advisors principal Pat Culligan, who heads the Memphis office, tells us. He adds a hypothetical: The Nashville lodging market would still be running above the national average occupancy even if 2,000 generic new rooms had opened at the beginning of this year.

"As it is, numerous hotels are under construction, but many more are finding it difficult to finalize new development initiatives. It’s a long road from hotel development concept to check-in."

An HREC team of SVP Monty Levy in the Atlanta office, SVP Bill Murney in the Phoenix office, and COO and senior principal Scott Stephens repped the seller, FelCor Lodging Trust, in the Nashville Airport Holiday Inn deal. An affiliate of Fairwood Capital bought the property, and plans some changes. "We have no doubt that with the intended brand change and planned capital spend, this will be a very successful investment for Fairwood,” Monty says.

Also, the airport submarket is the first one to attract overflow business from major events held Downtown, and has the added benefit of office parks surrounding the airport providing further demand for the hotel.