Margaritaville Resort in SoFlo Nabs $140M
By Julia Echikson September 8, 2023 1:40 pm
reprints
Jimmy Buffett lives on.
Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort scored $140 million from Wells Fargo (WFC) to refinance the oceanfront hotel a week after Buffett, the founder and face of the hospitality brand, passed away.
The property, which sits on 5 acres at 1111 N. Ocean Drive in Hollywood, Fla., houses 349 rooms, an 11,000-square-foot spa and 30,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting space.
The City of Hollywood owns the land. In 2021, Pebblebrook Hotel Trust paid $270 million for the ground lease of the 666,326-square-foot complex. The transaction included $108.5 million in cash, and the Maryland-based investor assumed the $161.5 million existing debt with a floating interest rate that currently stands at 2.5 percent.
Pebblebrook’s purchase was South Florida’s largest hospitality sale that year. It helped relaunch big-dollar hotel sales in the region following the start of the pandemic, which briefly devastated Florida’s tourism industry.
A representative for Pebblebrook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The newly accrued debt, the first since Pebblebrook purchased the hotel, is the latest sizable refinancing for South Florida resorts this summer. Brookfield Properties landed $144 million for a Hilton hotel in Fort Lauderdale and $210 million for a Ritz-Carlton hotel in Key Biscayne.
It also comes just over a week after Buffett, whose 1977 hit song “Margaritaville” inspired the hospitality brand in 1985, died from skin cancer. The singer grew the brand to 35 locations in the U.S, Mexico and the Caribbean today, with another seven on the way.
But in recent months, some locations have struggled, most notably the chain’s Time Square hotel. Last month, Soho Properties, which owns the 234-room property, filed for bankruptcy for the second time.
Julia Echikson can be reached at jechikson@commercialobserver.com.
