The Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina just hit the market, and could fetch $175 million, The Real Deal has learned.
The 9-acre property at 1881 Southeast 17th Street in Fort Lauderdale, on the Intracoastal Waterway, includes a 589-room hotel and a 33-slip marina. The hotel ranks as the third largest in Broward County, after the Diplomat Resort & Spa Hollywood, which has 998 rooms, and the Marriott Harbor Beach, with 650 rooms.
CBRE Hotels’ Christian Charre, Paul Weimer and Natalie J. Castillo, represent the seller, an affiliate of the New York-based Blackstone Group.
Charre told TRD that the hotel is not listed with a price, but “we believe the property should trade for around $175 million.” At that figure, it would sell for more than $297,000 per room.
Records show FL Grande LLC, led by Blackstone’s global head of real estate Jonathan Gray, purchased the property from Host Marriott in 2006. The deed does not list a price, and the purchase may have been part of a much larger deal. In 2006, Blackstone acquired the hotel REIT MeriStar Hospitality Corp., which owned 57 hotels under the Hilton, Sheraton, Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, Westin, Doubletree and Radisson brands in the U.S., for $2.6 billion.
The Hilton Fort Lauderdale was built in 1980 and 1981, records show. Charre said the hotel has been renovated several times, most significantly in 2008. Occupancy is in the 80 percent range, he said.
Blackstone‘s decision to sell the property reflects the private equity group’s typical strategy, since it has owned the hotel for more than 10 years, Charre said. “It’s part of the cycle for them to sell the asset and return equity to their investors and move on to the next deal,” he said.
CBRE Hotels is marketing the waterfront hotel to domestic and foreign investors in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, as well as to sovereign funds, he said.
In December, Blackstone sold the Hyatt Regency Pier Sixty-Six hotel and marina in Fort Lauderdale to Tavistock Development Company for $163.27 million, marking one of the biggest commercial deals in Broward County last year. Blackstone also sold the Bahia Mar lease in Fort Lauderdale in July 2014.