CIM Group Finances $30M Acquisition of Downtown Tampa Bay’s Aloft Hotel
Financing will go toward renovating the hotel on the city’s famous riverwalk
By Brian Pascus September 12, 2023 3:03 pm
reprints
Newbond Holdings has secured nearly $30 million in acquisition financing to acquire and renovate the Aloft Tampa Downtown hotel in Tampa Bay, Fla.
CIM Group provided the $29.6 million in floating-rate term financing, which was arranged through JLL (JLL) Capital Markets‘ Kevin Davis and Mark Fisher.
Davis said the decision to finance the deal came out of the belief that Tampa Bay continues to be a strong hospitality market coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Tampa has been one of the top three U.S. lodging markets in terms of [revenue per available room] growth between 2019 and [first quarter of] 2023, and the incredible market response to this financing is reflective of the capital markets sentiment around Tampa,” Davis said in a statement.
David added that “strong population growth, corporate migration, and significant development activity” have combined with an uptick in leisure and group travel to the area to make Downtown Tampa Bay one of the more dynamic hotel markets in the United States.
Located downtown at 100 West Kennedy Boulevard along the 2.6-mile-long Tampa Riverwalk, the Aloft Tampa Downtown is situated in the heart of a bustling hospitality neighborhood that includes two other hotels. The neighborhood doubles as the city’s central business district with a panoply of restaurants, schools, businesses and professional sporting events.
The Aloft Tampa sits within walking distance of the numerous urban communities along nearby Water Street; the 600,000-square-foot Tampa Convention Center; the 21,500-seat Amalie Arena (home to the National Hockey League’s Tampa Bay Lightning); The University of Tampa, which enrolls more than 9,300 students; and Tampa General Hospital, the highly ranked 1,040-bed nonprofit medical center.
The 130-key hotel was initially built as a bank in 1965 and closed in 2005 after having been converted into an office building, according to the Tampa Bay Times. After being sold in 2006 for $9 million, the property’s former owner, Starwood Property Hotels and Resorts, eventually agreed to redevelop the property into a hotel, and it opened in 2014 following a $20 million renovation, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
In 2015, Starwood sold the hotel for $30 million to Pharos CB, who this month agreed to sell it to New York-based Newbond Holdings.
Today the Aloft Tampa Downtown includes an outdoor pool, fitness center and business center.
Neil Luthra, founding partner at Newbond, said in a statement that the deal is Newbond’s third hotel investment in downtown Tampa since 2021, and one that continues to prove the conviction his firm has in the city’s “long-term growth story.”
“Tampa’s robust job and population growth, flourishing convention and tourism business,
and continued institutional investment have created one of the strongest real estate and
hospitality markets in the country,” said Luthra.
The acquisition price of the hotel’s September 2023 sale to Newbond was not reported.
Brian Pascus can be reached at bpascus@commercialobserver.com.
