Florida's Diplomat Beach Resort Sells for $835 Million in Post-Pandemic Record

25.08.2023 - 14:12 / skift.com / Asia Pacific / Sean Oneill

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Truist Securities said with earnings season about to kick into gear for the lodging sector, they continue to see macro over micro. They see the main driver/wildcard coming from the economic impact of interest rates and inflation with investor sentiment around these being the most important. They do expect most companies to have at least modest 4Q earnings beats and talk positively about expectations for the year with management teams having more conviction for the first half of the year than the back half due to limited visibility. Specifically for hotel REITs, Truist said 4Q results should not be much of a surprise as many gave earnings updates in late December and early January. For C-Corps, they expect most to come out with optimistic tones with the greatest degree of optimism derived from international strength in 4Q, mostly from Europe, Caribbean, and Canada, the resiliency of leisure travel, group/convention strength, the relative stability of new unit pipelines and their ability to return capital to shareholders.

Trinity Investments and Credit Suisse Asset Management, have agreed to purchase the Diplomat Beach Resort, in Hollywood, Florida, for $835 million. The 1,000-room oceanfront property has approximately 200,000 square feet of meeting space. The new owners plan to make renovations, and the hotel will be managed by Hilton Worldwide Holdings, Inc. under its Curio brand. JLL brokered the sale.

Skift Take: The Diplomat Beach Resort deal is the biggest hotel deal in the country since the pandemic began, The Miami Herald reported. The last resort sale that large was in 2019, when the Boca Raton Resort & Club sold for $875 million. The transaction validates a sense that deal-making for larger assets is beginning to thaw after an eight-month freeze because of interest-rate disruptions.

Tour groups from mainland China to 20 countries have restarted, 11 of which are in Asia Pacific. This includes Singapore, Philippines, Cambodia, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Macau and Hong Kong. Countries that are not on the list include Japan, South Korea and the US. The battle already is fierce for these low-margin groups as some countries remain starved for tourism business and others want to further their progress with all types of business. Analysts at COTRI (China Outbound Tourism Research Institute) questioned this logic saying for most destinations and service providers, first-time travelers from lower-tier Chinese cities will create more problems than profit. That being said, there is a target