Former Seville Beach Hotel in Miami Sells for $57.5M and Preps for Ian Schrager Makeover

Located at 2901 Collins Avenue, the Seville is a 12-story building that originally opened its doors in 1955. The sellers had acquired the hotel in 2005 for $25 million and joined forces with the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company L.L.C. in a plan to convert the property into a three-building Ritz-Carlton Club & Residences with fractional- and whole-ownership units. The project never reached fruition. Now a different set of plans is in store.

July 21, 2010
By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

The former Seville Beach Hotel in Miami Beach, Fla., which has been shuttered for the last few years, has changed hands in a $57.5 million, all-cash transaction. Fortune International and Lionstone Group, acting through their joint venture partnership 2901 Beach Ventures L.L.L.P., sold the property to an affiliate of Marriott Intentional Inc. Under the new ownership, the hotel will not be closed for too much longer.

Located at 2901 Collins Avenue, the Seville is a 12-story building that originally opened its doors in 1955. The sellers had acquired the hotel in 2005 for $25 million and joined forces with the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company L.L.C. in a plan to convert the property into a three-building Ritz-Carlton Club & Residences with fractional- and whole-ownership units. The project never reached fruition.

Now, a different set of plans is in store for the hotel, as new owner Marriott has partnered with hotel impresario Ian Schrager to transform the Seville into a boutique hotel carrying the Edition Hotel flag, a new brand created by Ian Schrager Co. and Marriott in 2008. The partners will have quite a bit of room to work with. The Seville site, which totals 4.5 acres with 350 feet fronting the Atlantic Ocean and another 100 feet fronting Indian Creek Drive, includes developable space on the west side of Collins Avenue.

The land at the Seville was just one factor that caught the attention of what turned out to be a bevy of hopeful buyers, according to real estate services firm Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P., which marketed the property on behalf of Fortune and Lionstone. “Miami Beach is woefully underrepresented within the major hotel brands,” J. Daniel Carlo, Senior Managing Director with HFF, noted in a press release. “As a result, the Seville was highly attractive to a wide variety of investors, including a number of high-quality brands that could make their mark in Miami Beach.”