South Florida hotels traded for record numbers in 2019, as the industry continued to grapple with competition from short-term rentals and an oversupply of rooms.
“The hotel market in 2019 is really a continuation of a lot of the trends in 2018. There was softness in occupancy in markets with new supply, and in markets where there was not a lot of supply, you saw considerable growth,” said broker Max Comess of Hodges Ward Elliott.
From a transactional perspective, Comess said that 2019 was the year of the family office. Long-term holders such as family offices and real estate investment trusts were the purchasers in some of the biggest deals in the tri-county region, including the top $875 million sale.
Michael Dell’s MSD Partners paid $875 million for the 1,047-room Boca Raton Resort & Spa. That price tag breaks down to $589.7 million for the resort, including furniture, fixtures and equipment, and $285.3 million for the Premier Club.