On the day Strategic Hotels & Resorts releases its first-quarter earnings, a report has surfaced that the lodging REIT wants to sell the Chicago Fairmont. According to a report in Crain’s Chicago Business, Strategic hopes to get $189 million, or $275,000 a room, for the 687-room downtown hotel. The company paid $158 million ($230,000 a room) for the hotel in 2005 and has spend additional millions on upgrades.

A source in the story claims the property is only worth about $140 million, if Strategic could even find a buyer. Reportedly, the company is under intense pressure to lighten its debt load. Strategic stock, which traded as high as $24 two years ago, is priced at $1.41 this afternoon, off 6.0 percent since the opening bell.

In other Chicago hotel news, Tishman Hotel & Realty, owners of the Sheraton Chicago, purchased the ground under that hotel for $52.5 million from a group controlled by local investor Fred Eychaner. Tishman held a long-term ground lease on the riverfront land. To finance the deal, Tishman borrowed $54 million from a German bank.