MIAMI — The joint venture, Blue Legacy Ventures, has broken ground on Legacy Hotel & Residences Hotel, a mixed-use tower in Miami with 255 hotel rooms, 310 residences and a $100 million medical center. Legacy Hotel & Residence is part of Miami Worldcenter, a $4 billion, 27-acre mixed-use development in downtown Miami. The tower sits on 1.3 acres. All 310 residences in the tower sold out in May. The Legacy’s residences range in size from 350 square feet to 850 square feet with studios to two-bedroom units. The units sit atop the hotel, which will be managed and operated by Accor under The Morgan’s Originals Portfolio. The skyscraper’s amenities will also include ground-floor retail, a one-acre pool deck, a seven-floor rooftop atrium with a restaurant bar and lounge, an elevated pool and a members-only international business lounge. Blue Zones and Adventist Health also signed a partnership agreement to operate the medical center once it’s completed. Blue Zones is a subsidiary of Adventist Health Blue Zones. Miami-based Royal Palm Cos. is a co-developer on the project. The 10-floor medical and well-being center will occupy 120,000 square feet within Legacy Hotel & Residences. The center will be powered by artificial intelligence and …
CLE ELUM, WASH. — JLL’s Hotel & Hospitality Group has arranged the sale of Suncadia, a resort community with hotel and residential components in Cle Elum, approximately 90 miles east of Seattle. Funds managed by Oaktreee Capital Management sold the asset. Terms of the transaction were not released. Situated on 6,400 acres, the resort features the 254-room Lodge at Suncadia; the 18-room Inn at Suncadia; five food and beverage outlets; multiple event spaces and meeting rooms; a swim club and fitness center; and a spa and wellness center. The resort also offers three mountain golf courses: the 7,100-yard, 18-hole Prospector Golf Course; the 7,300-yard, 18-hole Rope Rider Golf Course; and the private Tumble Creek Golf Course. The current ownership expects to sell additional units across the Suncadia resort and its sister community, Tumble Creek, which is located across the Cle Elum River. John Strauss, Tony Musico, Melvin Chu and Tatiana Hodapp of JLL Hotels & Hospitality represented the seller in the transaction.
PITTSBURGH — HREC Investment Advisors has negotiated the sale of Crowne Plaza Suites Pittsburgh South, a 179-room hotel located about seven miles from the downtown area. The property offers a pool, fitness center, business center, restaurant and bar and indoor and outdoor event space. Phil White and Mark von Dwingelo of HREC represented the undisclosed buyer in the transaction. The seller and sales price were also not disclosed.
CHICAGO — Hyatt Hotels Corp. (NYSE: H) has agreed to acquire Apple Leisure Group (ALG), a Pennsylvania-based firm that specializes in third-party operations of luxury wellness resorts, for $2.7 billion. The transaction comes as part of the Chicago-based hotel giant’s initiative to sell off $2 billion in real estate holdings by the end of 2024 and focus its growth strategy on the operations side of the hospitality business. Hyatt expects to sell $1.5 billion of its real estate assets by the end of this year, which would result in more than $3 billion in sales since the strategy was announced in 2017. Mark Hoplamazian, Hyatt president and CEO, notes that under this strategy, he expects that 80 percent of the company’s revenue stream will be fee-based earnings by the end of 2024. “The addition of ALG’s properties will immediately double Hyatt’s global resorts footprint,” says Hoplamazian. “ALG’s portfolio of luxury brands, leadership in the all-inclusive segment and large pipeline of new resorts will extend our reach in existing and new markets, including Europe, and further accelerate our industry-leading net rooms growth.” ALG’s operations portfolio spans 33,000 rooms across 100 properties in 10 countries. ALG’s resort brand management platform AMResorts provides …
WACO, TEXAS — Developer SRH Hospitality Holdings LLC and SkyWalker Property Partners will develop a 182-room hotel in Waco that will be operated under the AC Hotels by Marriott brand. The five-story building will be located within a Qualified Opportunity Zone in the downtown area. Amenities will include a 16,900-square-foot conference center with breakout rooms and an adjoining 4,000-square-foot poolside terrace, as well as a 7,700-square-foot ballroom. Rogers O’Brien Construction Co. is the general contractor for the project, construction of which is scheduled to begin this month and to be complete in June 2023. Other project partners include NORR (architect of record), Design Force Corp. and Wild Muse Interiors (interior designers) and Happy State Bank and Petros PACE Finance (construction lenders).
NASHVILLE, TENN. — Arriba Capital has provided an $18.5 million construction loan for a new Hyatt Place hotel in Nashville. In addition to the construction loan, Arriba arranged a complex ground lease on the property. Hyatt Place hotel will have 130 rooms with an average size of 350 square feet. One of the hotel amenities includes a fitness center. The borrower, Rev Par Cos., is a privately held hospitality management and development group based in the Southeast. Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Arriba Capital has financed multiple projects for the borrower.
HOUSTON — Host Hotels & Resorts Inc., a Maryland-based hospitality REIT, has purchased the former Hotel Alessandra, a 223-room shuttered property in downtown Houston, for $65 million. According to the Houston Chronicle, locally based firm Midway originally developed the hotel and completed it in 2017. Prior to closing, Hotel Alessandra featured a pool, spa and food and beverage concepts. Host Hotels & Resorts disclosed the purchase as part of its second-quarter earnings report but did not share plans for the future of the property.
RICHMOND, VA. — Apple Hospitality REIT, a publicly traded hotel REIT based in Richmond, has sold 20 select-service hotels for $211 million. The portfolio includes 11 Marriott-branded hotels and nine Hilton-branded hotels. The buyer is a joint venture between San Francisco-based Flynn Properties Inc. and Minneapolis-based Värde Partners. The 20 hotel properties are located throughout the Sun Belt, Northeast, Pacific Northwest and Midwest. Flynn Properties will assume property management duties and oversee capital improvements at the hotel over the next few years. With this acquisition, Flynn Properties’ select-service hotel portfolio increases to 26 properties. Flynn Properties, a division of Flynn Holdings, recently bought six Marriott Courtyards and four luxury resorts. Värde Partners is a global alternative investment firm whose investments span corporate and traded credit, real estate and mortgages, private equity and direct lending.
CHICAGO — Oxford Capital Group LLC has acquired the 247-room, luxury lifestyle hotel known as Thompson Chicago in the city’s Gold Coast neighborhood. Oxford’s wholly owned affiliate, Oxford Hotels & Resorts LLC, assumes management of the property effective immediately. Thompson Chicago will remain affiliated with Hyatt’s luxury lifestyle hotel brand Thompson Hotels. The property originally opened in 2013. Oxford plans to revamp the hotel’s ground-floor restaurant, Nico Osteria. The hotel is also home to 12,000 square feet of meeting and event space, private suites and a fitness center. A joint venture between Walton Street Capital and AJ Capital Partners sold the hotel for around $70 million, according to Crain’s Chicago Business.
NEW YORK CITY AND LAS VEGAS — VICI Properties Inc. (NYSE: VICI), MGM Growth Properties LLC (NYSE: MGP) and MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM) have entered into a definitive agreement under which VICI will acquire MGP for a total consideration of $17.2 billion, including the assumption of approximately $5.7 billion of debt. MGM Resorts is the controlling shareholder of MGP. Upon completion of the merger, VICI will have an estimated enterprise value of $45 billion representing 43 properties in 15 states. The deal will add 15 Class A entertainment resort properties across the country to VICI’s portfolio, comprising 33,000 hotel rooms; 3.6 million square feet of meeting and convention space; and hundreds of food, beverage and entertainment venues. The deal represents an estimated 30 to 40 percent discount to replacement cost. The move will solidify VICI as the largest experiential net-lease REIT, while also advancing its goals of portfolio enhancement and diversification, according to the company. Following the transaction, approximately 55 percent of VICI’s rent base will be generated by market-leading regional properties, while the remaining 45 percent will come from properties on the Las Vegas Strip. Simultaneous with the closing of the transaction, VICI will enter into an amended …