FelCor Lodging Trust out of the Dallas area announced Wednesday it has agreed to sell the 296-room Embassy Suites in the airport area, along with a New Orleans hotel, for a total of $70 million.

The as-yet-undisclosed purchaser has paid a $2.1 million hard money deposit toward the purchase price. The transaction is expected to close in October.

FelCor purchased the hotel for a shade under $11 million in 1991. The company expects to use a portion of the proceeds to pay the remaining $37.7 million of accrued preferred dividends when it pays its regular quarterly preferreds at the end of next month.

As part of a long-term portfolio repositioning, the company is selling 39 non-strategic hotels. After this latest sale, FelCor will have sold 18 of the 25 hotels that it has brought to market since December 2010.

 
Office Depot's small-format store to debut in Green Hills

Office Depot, responding to customer feedback and a change in shopping patterns, is opening a small-format store at 2109 Abbott Martin Road in Green Hills.

The new store is nearly 5,500 square feet and with 16 employees. The Florida-based retailer runs four other local stores on West End Avenue near Vanderbilt University, in Belle Meade Plaza and in Brentwood and Madison.