Portfolio and asset sales are picking up steam as travel resumes. Here are several recent notable transactions.
Record Resort Sale
Geolo Capital, the private equity investment arm of the John Pritzker family office, and its joint-venture partner Wanxiang America Real Estate, has sold the Ventana Big Sur, an Alila Resort, to an affiliate of Hyatt Hotels Corp. for $148 million. The property is located in Big Sur, Calif. The transaction is a record $2.5 million per-key price for a North American resort, according to Hodges Ward Elliott and Real Capital Analytics 2021.
The sale marks Geolo’s successful roundtrip investment of the Ventana Big Sur resort, as well as its investment in the Alila brand, a company Geolo acquired in 2014, attached to Ventana in 2017 and sold to Hyatt in 2018.
Geolo acquired the property, which originally was developed in 1975, in 2015 and invested $23 million to complete a major renovation, updating all 59 guestrooms and highlighting the resort’s 160 acres.
Portfolio Sale
Newton, Mass.-based real estate investment trust Service Properties Trust has sold a portfolio of 15 Hawthorn Suites-branded hotels with 1,642 rooms throughout the U.S. to GCMS Lodging Partners. Houston-based Gulf Coast Hotel Management will manage the extended-stay Wyndham Hotels & Resorts-flagged portfolio.
HREC Investment Advisors arranged the sale. The marketing and negotiations were led by COO & Senior Principal Scott Stephens in the Tampa office and Managing Director Monty Levy in the Atlanta office.
Texas Resorts
Ohana Real Estate Investors has acquired the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort & Spa, a 491-room resort located near Austin, Texas, from an affiliate of Hyatt Hotels Corp., and the La Cantera Resort & Spa, a 496-key resort located in San Antonio, from USAA Real Estate.
The properties are the second and third Ohana has acquired since the onset of the pandemic.
Ohana has acquired more than $1.2 billion in full-service hotels in the past 18 months, and has also been active in originating and buying hotel loans during the pandemic. The company intends to continue buying controlling stakes in full-service hotels and resorts, which have historically experienced more pronounced declines during demand shocks but have seen strong rebounds following recessions.
The Hyatt Regency takes up 650 acres along the banks of Texas’ Colorado River between Austin and Bastrop, Texas. The property has more than 36,000 square feet of indoor meeting space and more than 276,000 square feet of outdoor function space, a golf club, a spa, a water park and an equestrian facility
La Cantera has two golf courses, 12 dining venues, a spa and 34 villas.