Dive Brief:
- Braemar Hotels & Resorts entered into a definitive agreement to sell the 193-key Park Hyatt Beaver Creek Resort & Spa in Avon, Colorado, for $176 million, the Dallas-based real estate investment trust announced.
- Located at the base of Beaver Creek Mountain, the property offers ski-in/ski-out access as well as newly renovated guest rooms and a full-service spa. Braemar, then Ashford Hospitality Prime, acquired the resort in 2017 for $145.5 million.
- The deal comes as Braemar pursues a sale of its business, no longer believing “a luxury RevPAR lodging REIT can flourish in today’s market environment,” according to an August statement. Industrywide, however, there have been several notable luxury hotel transactions this year as the segment remains desirable to investors.
Dive Insight:
Braemar will sell the Park Hyatt to an entity named Apres Owner LLC for roughly $900,000 per key in a deal expected to close this month, according to an April 30 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The sale of the Park Hyatt “at a premium valuation” marks “a significant milestone in our ongoing strategic review and sales process, underscoring the high quality of our portfolio,” Richard Stockton, Braemar’s president and CEO, said in an April 30 statement.
Advised by Ashford Inc., the trust initiated the sales process in August, seeking to address issues with governance and shareholder value, real estate experts told Hotel Dive at the time. During a February earnings call, however, Stockton said there was “no deadline or definitive timetable set” for the sale’s completion, also noting “there can be no assurance that this process will result in the sale of the company or its assets.”
After initiating the sale process, Braemar also offloaded the 369-room Marriott Seattle Waterfront for $145 million. At the time of that transaction, Stockton said he wouldn’t rule out additional divestment in 2026 as “the debt markets continue to heal.”
Global hotel investment is expected to increase this year, in part due to stronger debt markets, with luxury being a winning asset class for investors, JLL reported earlier this year.
Other luxury hotel transactions so far this year include the sale of the JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort in Florida for $835 million; Gencom’s acquisition of The Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park hotel in Midtown Manhattan; and Host Hotels & Resorts’ sale of the Four Seasons Resort Orlando at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and the Four Seasons Resort and Residences Jackson Hole in Wyoming for a combined $1.1 billion.
