Waldorf Astoria Naples Trades for $200M

 By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

The Waldorf Astoria Naples, fronting the beach in Naples, Fla., has come under new ownership in a transaction valued at approximately $200 million. An affiliate of Blackstone sold the 474-room luxury resort hotel and the 18-hole Naples Grande Golf Course to an affiliate of Northwood Investors.

The transaction comes nine years after Blackstone came into possession of the property with the $1.4 billion acquisition of Boca Resorts Inc.  The hotel has had a few different names over the years, but it’s always had a presence. Developed as the Registry Resort & Club in 1986, the hotel later evolved into the Naples Grande Beach Resort, and in January 2012, the 20-acre property became the Waldorf Astoria Naples.

Commercial real estate and capital markets services provider HFF marketed the Waldorf Naples on behalf of Blackstone, and found no lack of interested parties. REITs, institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds–they came out from across the globe. It’s all about rebound.

“In the last 12 or 18 months, we’ve seen a huge resurgence because the economy is doing better, people are taking vacations and corporate travel has come back in a very strong way,” Max Comess, director with HFF, told Commercial Property Executive. “Miami came back the first, because it is truly global gateway city and oceanfront resorts in Miami are just so scarce and there are such high barriers to get into this market. But now that the broader market for luxury properties is recovering, we’re seeing some really high-profile trades outside of Miami.”

Those recent high-profile sales transactions beyond Miami borders include Pier House and the Southernmost Hotel in Key West, and the Ritz-Carlton Fort Lauderdale, orchestrated by HFF, And there will be more.

“I expect that owners that have been holding for the last 5 to 10 years now will realize that this is a very good environment  to go to market for sale,” Comess said. “There’s very aggressive debt and equity available today for these types of properties, so I expect you will see an increased pace of transactions.”