Post 200 The guide to the region's top businesses

Guests at the rooftop pool of the Donovan House hotel in Northwest Washington, which is one of 10 local hotels and resorts in LaSalle's portfolio. (Evy Mages/For The Washington Postt)

Public companies and financial services

LaSalle Hotel Properties

LaSalle, with 35 hotels, scored a few choice acquisitions this year. It snagged the Viceroy Santa Monica, a 162-room property in Santa Monica, Calif., for $80.1 million in March, followed by the purchase of the 934-room Park Central in New York for $405.5 million in June. And in October, LaSalle picked up the 182-room Villa Florence in San Francisco for $67.2 million. The company also disposed of the 564-room Sheraton Bloomington Hotel in Minneapolis for $20 million, nearly $12 million less than what it paid for it in 1995.

Trivia

LaSalle occupies the same office buildings as several of its competitors, including RLJ Lodging Trust and DiamondRock Hospitality.