HREC arranges sale of Tampa Sheraton

HREC Investment Advisors arranged the sale of the 266-room Sheraton Tampa East Hotel.

Paul Sexton of HREC Investment Advisors’ Orlando office, Jaimin Patel of HREC’s Tampa office and Scott Stephens, COO & senior principal were the exclusive representatives of the seller, which was an entity related to joint venture partners Varde Partners, Waramaug Hospitality and Interstate Hotels & Resorts.

The buyer was an affiliate of Boston-based Linchris Hotel Corporation.

“HREC was able to establish a highly competitive market for the Sheraton Tampa East hotel based on a number of factors including the booming Tampa/St. Petersburg market, our ability to effectively demonstrate the incredible diversification of demand that exists in the Tampa East submarket and the fact that the hotel is the only property in the area that has the function space needed to accommodate the needs of the regional group market," Sexton said.

“The transaction was positively affected by the anticipated integration of the Starwood flags into the Marriott family of brands," Patel said. "Based on our experience during the course of this and other similar transactions, the hotel investment community is reacting very favorably to Marriott’s acquisition of the Starwood brands.”

“In addition to the Sheraton Tampa East hotel, HREC has also been selected by the Varde/Waramaug/Interstate joint venture to market for sale the Sheraton Albuquerque Airport, which is currently available for acquisition," Stephens said. "Further, in August 2016 HREC will be bringing to market on behalf of the joint venture partners, the Radisson Resort Orlando Celebration, a 615-guestroom hotel located in the heart of the Celebration neighborhood, just five minutes from two entry points to Walt Disney World.”

The Sheraton is located in the “Tampa East” Market of the “Tampa/St. Petersburg” Tract. The performance of the Greater Tampa hotel market continues to outpace the national market as evidenced by the Tract’s 9.3 percent RevPAR growth over the T-12 June 2016 period. Tampa East is a suburban submarket that relies on demand from major corporations (such as Citibank), the University of South Florida, the Florida State Fairgrounds/Mid-Florida Amphitheater, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Florida Hospital Tampa/Moffit Cancer Center and distribution/warehousing (such as Amazon’s new 1.0 million SF facility) among other important demand generators.  With over 30,000 square feet of function space and a location near the intersection of I-4 and I-10, the hotel also competes for the regional groups market.