The New York-based company, manager of the world’s largest real estate private-equity fund, agreed in November to buy Apple REIT Six Inc., a nonlisted REIT that owns 66 hotels, for about $1.2 billion, including debt. The deal was the second-largest in the U.S. hospitality industry in the past year, after Blackstone’s $1.9 billion purchase of the Motel 6 chain, according to Bloomberg data.

Apple REIT Six was nearing the end of its life outlined in its prospectus filed in 2004 when the Blackstone deal was announced. The Richmond, Virginia-based company had planned to list stock, dispose of properties or merge seven years after its share sales closed in 2006, according to a regulatory filing.

Reverse Merger

Cole Credit Property Trust II Inc., a nonlisted owner of primarily single-tenant properties, took the tactic of becoming public through a reverse merger. It agreed in January to acquire Spirit Realty Capital Inc. in a deal valued at about $3.6 billion, the largest purchase of a REIT in the past six months, according to Bloomberg data. The new company will take Spirit’s name and keep its management.

Other companies may find deals within their own sponsor group. Last week, American Realty Capital Properties Inc. completed its purchase of nonlisted American Realty Capital Trust III Inc., becoming the owner of 692 properties in 44 states. The acquisition was valued at about $2.2 billion, Chairman Nicholas Schorsch said on a Dec. 17 conference call, according to a transcript filed with regulators.

Both had been managed by affiliates of New York-based American Realty Capital, which attracted the most money among nonlisted REITs in the first nine months of last year, at $2.08 billion, according to Cumming, Georgia-based Blue Vault.

Cole Holdings, a Phoenix-based nontraded REIT sponsor that oversees more than 2,000 properties, said yesterday that it will be acquired by Cole Credit Property Trust III Inc. The combined company would then pursue a listing on the New York Stock Exchange under the name Cole Real Estate Investments.

‘Greater Liquidity’

“CCPT III will be able to increase its dividend payout and intends to now pursue the listing of its common stock to achieve greater liquidity and superior access to the capital markets,” Leonard Wood, chairman of the special committee of the REIT’s board, said in a statement.

Nontraded REITs that raised money in the boom period of about 2005 to 2007 generally proposed ending their cycle five to seven years after the shares were sold and are now looking at mergers or listings, said Decker of BMO Capital Markets in Chicago. The companies attracted $7.2 billion in 2006 and a record $11.7 billion in 2007, according to Blue Vault.