Microsoft’s billionaire founder Bill Gates III, through his Kirkland, WA-based firm Cascade Investment LLC, has purchased almost 3.9 million shares of stock in locally based Strategic Hotels and Resorts Inc., according to an SEC filing. With the purchase, Gates owns about 5.23% of the REIT. The purchase comes at a time that the REIT has downgraded estimates of earnings for 2009, with officers citing the struggling economy, higher construction costs and the drop in group bookings nationwide. Strategic, in its second quarter earnings conference call on Aug. 7, said its lowering its guidance for FFO per share for the rest of the year by 10% to the mid-point of $1.46 to $1.56.