AJ Capital Partners buys the Hotel Durant in Berkeley, Calif.

AJ Capital Partners acquired the historic Hotel Durant near the University of California campus in Berkeley, Calif. 

The hotel will become part of AJ Capital Partners' new Graduate Hotels collection, a collection of hotels in university towns across the U.S. Others in the collection include a hotel in Oxford, Miss.; Charlottesville, Va.; and Madison, Wisc., among others.

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The 143-room hotel houses Henry’s, an 87-year-old restaurant and pub, and borders the UC Berkeley campus. It was built in 1928 and named after Henry Durant, the first president of UC Berkeley and former mayor of Oakland.

AJ Capital Partners bought the hotel from Gemstone Hotels and Resorts, following Gemstone’s 2013 acquisition of the hotel for an estimated $27.3 million. Before that, Joie De Vivre Hotels and unnamed previous capital partner bought the hotel in 2007 for an estimated $14 million and spent $9 million on renovations.