Dual-Branded Marriott in Orlando Lands $42M Loan

5730 Central Florida Parkway

Meridian Capital Group has arranged $41.8 million in construction financing for a two-flagged Element and Aloft Hotel in Orlando that’s being developed by AD1 Global.

The seven-story property, at 5730 Central Florida Parkway, at the corner with International Drive, will total 284 keys.

The boutique Aloft Hotel, which will have 140 guestrooms, and the nature-inspired Element Hotel, which will have 144, will share an outdoor saltwater pool, laundry and valet services, as well as fitness and business centers. The Element will offer guests complimentary breakfasts, while the Aloft will feature a bar and restaurant, and 4,000 square feet of conference space.

The site is about a mile from Sea World and Aquatica and less than 10 miles from Disney Springs, Ripley’s Believe it or Not and Epcot, with the other Disney parks and the Orlando International Airport less than 20 minutes away by car.

The 36-month loan was provided by a balance sheet lender and features a LIBOR-based floating rate, two one-year extension options and full-term interest-only payments. This transaction was negotiated by Meridian Managing Director Noam Kaminetzky, of the company’s Boca Raton, Fla., office.

“Meridian, the sponsor, and the lender worked closely to structure a deal that provided up to 75 percent loan-to-cost non-recourse senior debt, allowing the sponsor to then layer on EB-5 capital to maximize the return on equity for the deal,” Kaminetzky said in a prepared statement.

Hot—but maybe cooling?

“Orlando is a very hot market fueled by spectacular growth in tourism with a record 72 million visitors in 2017 and growing,” Jon McMillian, AD1 Global corporate director of e-commerce and marketing, said in the prepared statement. “[T]he future is even brighter with Disney planning to open Star Wars Land at the end of this year.”

Over the past five years or so, the Orlando hospitality market has seen its guestroom count barely edge upward, even as demand has soared, pushing the market to 79.2 percent occupancy in 2017, matching a record set in 1996, according to a 2019 outlook from CBRE.

That logjam is about to be broken—big-time—the CBRE forecast notes, with more than 11,000 new guestrooms scheduled to open by 2020, including three mega-properties totaling 3,600 keys.

“Gone for now are the days of very low supply growth in the Orlando market,” the report warns, with occupancy levels expected to diminish starting this year.

AD1 Global has been on the move lately. In December, the company closed on the $95 million acquisition of a five-hotel, 758-key portfolio with properties in Orlando, Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C. And in June 2018, AD1 Global bought the 157-key Marriott Myrtle Beach Barefoot Landing, in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Also last June, Meridian arranged $240 million in financing for the 560,000-square-foot office tower at 636 11th Ave. in Manhattan. Owner/borrower The Hakimian Org. was refinancing the building, which is fully occupied by Ogilvy & Mather as its global headquarters.

Image courtesy Meridian Capital