Magic Johnson Picks Up Houston Hotel

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jan 5th 2011 at 7:01PM

While most of the news about Magic Johnson lately has been about his plans to bring NFL football back to Los Angeles, Johnson has still kept busy adding new properties to his Canyon Johnson Urban Funds. Along with Centurion Partners, Canyon Johnson Urban Funds bought Hotel Icon, a trendy boutique hotel in Houston for $27 million through a credit bid at the Harris County foreclosure auction. The Houston Chronicle reports that the Hotel Icon had $46 million in debt.

The new owners plan to rebrand the hotel. It will no longer be an independent boutique hotel, but will become part of an undisclosed chain. This isn't Magic's first foray in Houston, Canyon Johnson Urban Funds, also owns the Marq*E Center, a 362,000-square-foot shopping center at the intersection of I-10/I-610 in Houston. Nor is this his first hotel deal, the Canyon Johnson portfolio already has the Washington Hilton among its properties.

The hotel has 135 rooms in the12-story structure at 220 Main, which was formerly the Union National Bank building, built in 1911. The building was bought in a 2002 foreclosure sale and the developers turned it into the Hotel Icon, which opened just before Houston hosted the Super Bowl in 2004. The building is also home to the Voice restaurant and the Balance Urban Day Spa.

Tags: hotel icon, houston hotels, Magic Johnson, Magic Johnson business