Fort Partners Lands $410M to Refi Four Seasons Resorts in Surfside, Palm Beach
By Julia Echikson October 20, 2023 1:09 pm
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Real estate developer Fort Partners landed $410 million to refinance the Four Seasons resorts in Surfside and Palm Beach, Fla.
Citi Real Estate Funding and Deutsche Bank — via its German American Capital entity— will originate the four-year interest-only loan at a fixed rate of 8.7 percent, according to a DBRS Morningstar filing, which was first reported by The Real Deal.
The new financing will repay the existing debt, of which $345 million remains outstanding. Fort Partners, led by Nadim Ashi, will have $56.5 million remaining, while $8.5 million will go toward closing costs.
The South Florida-based developer completed the Four Seasons resort in Surfside, also known as the Surf Club, in 2017. Located at 9011 Collins Avenue, the oceanfront complex houses 77 hotel rooms and 25 condo units — which Fort continues to manage — plus a Michelin-starred restaurant helmed by Thomas Keller.
The Palm Beach oceanfront hotel features 207 hotel rooms at 2800 S Ocean Boulevard. Fort Partners purchased the property for an undisclosed amount in 2014, according to property records. In 2019, it completed a $74 million renovation, and last year spent an additional $6.3 to upgrade the meeting spaces.
Though both properties had lower daily occupancy rates than their main competitors in 2022, they boasted higher rates and per-room revenue (RevPAR) metrics over the same period. The Surfside property averaged $2,770 nightly and boasted a RevPAR rate of $1,702, while the Palm Beach hotel notched $1,345 a night and a RevPAR rate of $750, according to Morningstar.
The food and beverage component accounts for nearly a third of the portfolio’s revenue.
Despite Morningstar analysts describing both resorts as “the epitome of luxury and considered to be among the top hotels in Florida as well as the country,” the credit rating agency appraised the portfolio at $450 million — 43 percent less than the lenders, who landed on a valuation just shy of $800 million.
Factors mitigating the values could be the property’s shrinking RevPAR rate, which is down 6 percent from last year, during the height of the pandemic, and the skyrocketing cost of insurance. The portfolio’s insurance rates jumped by 225 percent between 2019 and 2022, per Morningstar.
The loan is the latest South Florida hotel to secure financing this year. Brookfield Properties landed a combined $350 million for the Ritz-Carlton resort in Key Biscayne and a Hilton hotel on the Intracoastal in Fort Lauderdale.
Last year, Jeffrey Soffer’s Fontainebleau Development nabbed a $412 million loan to refinance the JW Marriott Miami Turnberry Resort in Aventura.
Fort Partners — which owns all Four Seasons properties in South Florida including hotels in Brickell and Fort Lauderdale — is developing another condo project in Surfside, called the Seaway at Surf Club Residences.
The DBRS report was released this week, but it wasn’t immediately clear when the loans were issued. A representative for Fort Partners did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Julia Echikson can be reached at jechikson@commercialobserver.com.
