MCR Buys Hilton Hotel Near MIA for $118M
By Julia Echikson February 3, 2023 6:16 pm
reprints
MCR paid $118.25 million for a hotel near Miami International Airport, the New York-based buyer announced together with the seller, Park Hotels & Resorts.
The property, Hilton Miami Airport Blue Lagoon, features 508 hotel rooms and 32,000 square feet of meeting space. The sale equates to just under $233,000 per room, and represents a 6.2 percent capitalization rate compared to 2019’s net operating income, according to the seller.
Located just south of the airport at 5101 Blue Lagoon Drive, the 14-story hotel sits on 20.5 acres within the Blue Lagoon business park, where companies such as Burger King are headquartered. The building, completed in 1983, last sold for $55.8 million in 1997, according to property records.
MCR, one of the largest hotel operators in the country, cited Miami International Airport’s growing passenger base as a factor for the purchase. The airport served 25.5 million passengers during the first half of 2022, and was on track to serve 50 million passengers through the end of 2022, which would be a record for the airport. (The latest figures have not yet been released.)
In 2019, Miami-Dade County Commissioners approved a $5 billion plan to both modernize and expand the airport over the next five to 15 years, which MCR also referenced as a reason for the purchase.
The Hilton acquisition comes less than two months after MCR purchased another hotel near the airport, the 135-room Hyatt Place Miami Airport-East, for just $16.6 million. MCR owns 10 hotels in Florida and 21,000 guest rooms nationwide.
Earlier this week, in a sign of South Florida’s resilient hospitality market, Trinity Investments and Credit Suisse paid $835 million for the Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood, Fla., after more than a year of negotiations — making it the region’s largest hotel deal since the pandemic hit.
Julia Echikson can be reached at jechikson@commercialobserver.com.
