PUBLICATION: Tampa Bay Business Journal
TITLE: Hotels in St. Pete, Islamorada sold to new investors amid ‘unprecedented interest’ in coastal Florida hospitality properties
AUTHOR: By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer – Real Estate Editor, Tampa Bay Business Journal
DATE: Feb. 2, 2021
ARTICLE:
The 227-room Hilton St. Petersburg Carillon Park and 139-key, 24-acre Islander Resort in Islamorada have been sold to a joint venture of Lubert-Adler Real Estate Funds and Hersha Hospitality Management, both based in Philadelphia, and Tampa’s Loci Capital. The seller was Hobbs & Curry Family Limited Partnership.
Tampa-based The Plasencia Group — including CEO Lou Plasencia, senior managing director Robert Wiemer, and managing directors Nick Plasencia and Chris Plasencia — represented the seller. A purchase price was not disclosed, and a deed for the St. Petersburg property has not yet been filed.
The sales come as Florida’s hospitality sector is showing signs of life after being decimated by the novel coronavirus pandemic, which shut down leisure travel for the majority of 2020. Nick Plasencia, managing director, says there is “unprecedented investor interest” in Florida hotel properties.
“The state’s resilient economy and lodging outperformance has piqued the interest of sophisticated investors across the country looking to invest in assets just like these,” he said in a statement.
The Plasencia group says it has facilitated more than $200 million in hotel and resort transactions in the last 100 days to “to well-capitalized investors who are actively acquiring hotels as early movers in this part of the investment cycle.”
Commercial real estate observers have predicted a flood of interest since the novel coronavirus pandemic arrived on U.S. shores in March. In many sectors, a correction was due, and investors have been stockpiling cash to be ready to pounce on deals. Read more here.
