March 05–The Inn at Perry Cabin, a luxurious St. Michaels hotel where parts of the movie “Wedding Crashers” were filmed, will be sold to a private real estate firm for $39.7 million.
The purchase by real estate magnate Richard Cohen’s CAP Acquisitions LLC is expected to close in the next few weeks, according to real estate services firm Savills Hospitality Group, which advised on the deal. The seller, Orient-Express Hotels Ltd., will remain as manager under a 10-year agreement.
Marc Magazine, executive managing director of Savills Hospitality, said his firm approached London-based Orient-Express at the end of last summer about selling the property because Cohen, the president of CAP Acquisitions, was interested in expanding his hotel holdings. Cohen’s real estate company, New York-based Capital Properties, owns the Chatham Bars Inn on Cape Cod, in addition to many office and residential properties.
“[Orient-Express] did not have it on the market, they had no interest in selling it, but sometimes if an opportunity is presented to people that makes sense, they do it,” Magazine said.
The 78-room Inn at Perry Cabin, located in a colonial country house, has operated as a hotel since 1990. Before Orient-Express bought the property in 1999, it was owned by Sir Bernard Ashley, the husband and business partner to Laura Ashley of the flowery fashion and home-decorating firm.
Cohen plans to add a tennis club, expand the spa, and add water activities, according to a release.
“The Inn at Perry Cabin is a perfect fit to the portfolio of unique luxury assets we are creating to service our target market here in the United States,” he said in a statement.
