The Hilton Orrington Hotel.

The financially distressed Orrington Hotel in downtown Evanston has been sold to a venture led by Oklahoma-based real estate investor Mark Beffort.

Chicago Business reports the sale of the 269-room hotel closed last week.

Beffort reportedly paid just over $34 million for the nine-story property at 1710 Orrington Ave.

That’s far less than $44.24 million that New York-based Olshan Properties paid for the property in 2015, according to property deed records at the Cook County Clerk’s Office, and just a little more than the $31.4 million that the previous owner, Seattle-based Dow Hotel Company had paid for it in 2013.

After the COVID-19 pandemic destroyed the travel market, Olshan’s lender filed a foreclosure suit in February 2021 claiming that with unpaid interest and fees, the debt on what was originally a $40 million mortgage had risen to almost $50 million.

The hotel was placed on the market in January.

Bill Smith is the editor and publisher of Evanston Now.

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