Blackstone Group has reportedly agreed to acquire the Grand Wailea, a Waldorf Astoria Resort luxury resort, in Maui, for roughly $1.1 billion. The private equity giant is buying the resort from GIC, a sovereign wealth fund based in Singapore. The purchase of the property has yet to be made public, and much of the details behind the deal remain unannounced.
If it does close, the transaction would be the second-largest hotel deal for a single U.S. property in history, behind Anbang Insurance Group’s purchase of the Waldorf Astoria in New York from Hilton Worldwide Holdings for $1.95 billion nearly three years ago.
The Grand Wailea is a 780-room resort hotel currently managed by Hilton. The property is spread across 40 acres of land on Maui’s southwest shore, and the destination has three restaurants and a spa, as well as nine pools, a 2,000-foot-long river, 11 tennis courts and more. The property opened in 1991.
GIC acquired the resort in March 2013 for $774 million from a transaction overseen by a bankruptcy court. In the same transaction, GIC also purchased the Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa in Phoenix, also branded under Waldorf Astoria, as well as the La Quinta Resort & Club in La Quinta, Calif., and the Claremont Resort & Spa in Berkeley, Calif.
The last recorded deal between GIC and Blackstone took place in December 2014, when affiliates of GIC purchased IndCor Properties, Blackstone’s U.S.-based industrial platform, from funds affiliated with Blackstone Real Estate Partners VI & VII for a total of $8.1 billion.