Dive Brief:
- Funds affiliated with Blackstone Real Estate will acquire the 785-key Sunseeker Resort Charlotte Harbor located along the Gulf Coast of Florida from Allegiant Travel Company for $200 million, according to a Monday news release.
- The sale comes after the resort faced financial woes last year following its opening, Allegiant leadership detailed during a Q2 2024 earnings call. During a Q1 earnings call earlier this year, Allegiant CEO Greg Anderson expressed intent to sell the resort by the end of the summer to focus on the company’s airlines business.
- Despite its previous troubles, Sunseeker Resort Charlotte Harbor is poised to benefit from “the continued growth in group-oriented destinations,” according to Scott Trebilco, senior managing director at Blackstone. The deal aligns with Blackstone’s hospitality investment strategy.
Dive Insight:
Blackstone’s “extensive hospitality holdings and their execution capabilities” will enable the firm to “help realize the full potential of Sunseeker Resort,” Anderson said in a statement.
Sunseeker Resort Charlotte Harbor opened in December 2023 on 22 acres. The resort offers 20 dining options and bars, two pools, a spa, a fitness center, a rooftop adult pool and bar, a golf course and more than 60,000 square feet of indoor meeting space.
In early 2024, Anderson said the resort’s opening was a key opportunity to sell hotel rooms directly to Allegiant’s airline passenger customers. However, by the second quarter of the year, the resort’s financial results were not meeting expectations.
Despite expressing a rosier outlook on the long-term viability of Sunseeker Resort in Q1, Anderson shared that the company was on track to sell the property.
“We recognize our core competencies lie within the airline business where we see abundant opportunity and long-term success. Maintaining a strong industry-leading balance sheet is also a top priority of ours. Pursuing a transaction related to the sale of the resort is an important step towards our objectives for the airline,” Anderson said during a May earnings call.
For Blackstone, the acquisition of the “highly-amenitized” Sunseeker Resort aligns with the firm’s “strong conviction in hospitality and travel,” including group travel, Trebilco said in a statement.
Group and business travel continued to grow at a healthy pace across the U.S. in the first quarter of the year, according to Cendyn and Amadeus’ Hospitality Group and Business Performance Index. Multigenerational travel and sports tourism have bolstered group business nationwide.
Blackstone adds the asset to a real estate portfolio with other large-scale resort properties, including the Hotel del Coronado in California, which recently completed a $550 million restoration. The firm also acquired the Kimpton Hotel Eventi in New York City earlier this year for $175 million.
The Sunseeker Resort Charlotte Harbor transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.
Blackstone declined a Hotel Dive request to comment on the transaction.
