A shake-up at the Alden-Houston Hotel

The Alden-Houston Hotel is changing hands. The downtown Houston boutique hotel was sold Monday to the New York firm Northwood Hospitality for an undisclosed amount.

My Table's Teresa Byrne-Dodge first reported the sale. Alden-Houston representative Mark G. Hanna confirmed the change of ownership to CultureMap and said he believes it is the first hotel holding for Northwood.

Previous owner Barbara Smith had renovated the 1924 structure and opened it as the Sam Houston Hotel in 2002. The name was changed to the Alden in 2005 because then-hotel president Tim Miller said the Sam Houston name was not well-known outside of the state of Texas.

The official change in ownership is to take place at midnight Thursday; no name changes are planned for the time being.

Hanna reports that *17 restaurant will continue to run as normal after the recent departure of executive chef Chip Hight and General Manager Susan Ward-Freeman will work her last day on Thursday, with a few other personnel changes possible.