Sculptor Diversified Buying Florida Resort for $835M

Sculptor Diversified Real Estate Income Trust is under contract to purchase the JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort and two nearby 18-hole golf courses in Southwest Florida for a combined $835 million, which could become one of the state’s largest hospitality trades in recent years.

The oceanfront, 809-room resort includes three towers, which were built between 1972 and 2019, on more than 10 acres of private beachfront at 400 South Collier Boulevard on Marco Island. The two golf courses — Hammock Bay and Rookery — are about 10 miles inland in Naples, Fla. 

The transaction is expected to close by May 1, according to a filing from Sculptor Diversified to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, announcing the pending sale. 

The buyer plans to secure debt and has already put down a nonrefundable deposit, per the filing. Within two years of the acquisition, the New York-based REIT, led by founder Steven Orbuch, intends to renovate the asset. 

Barings, the asset management arm of MassMutual, has owned both the resort and the golf courses since 2017, and listed them in September. Marco Island is on Florida’s southern Gulf Coast, about 50 miles south of Fort Myers.

Previously in 2023, Trinity Investments and Credit Suisse Asset Management paid $835 million for the 1,000-room Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood, which at the time was one of the largest hotel deals since the pandemic hit. In 2019, Michael Dell’s MSD Partners, before it merged with merchant bank BDT & Company, spent about $875 million for the historic, 1,047-room Boca Raton Resort & Club.

A spokesperson for Barings declined to comment. A Representative for Sculptor Diversified did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Julia Echikson can be reached at jechikson@commercialobserver.com.