A trophy resort asset situated slopeside in Beaver Creek sold to a real estate investment trust establishing a presence in the Vail Valley.
Ashford Hospitality Prime Inc., which is focused on investing in luxury hotels and resorts, paid $145.5 million, or $766,000 per key, for the 190-room Park Hyatt Beaver Creek Resort & Spa.
“The acquisition of the iconic Park Hyatt Beaver Creek Resort & Spa is an opportunity for us to acquire a premier resort with the best location in the very attractive Beaver Creek market,” Richard J. Stockton, CEO of Ashford Prime, said in a release announcing the agreement to acquire the property.
“This property fits perfectly with our strategy of owning luxury hotels and resorts and further diversifies our portfolio by establishing a presence in the highly sought-after Vail Valley market.”
Bernard Van Der Lande, director, CBRE Capital Advisors, and Mark Darrington and Larry Kaplan, senior vice presidents, CBRE Hotels, represented the seller, an international private equity firm, in the sale of Park Hyatt Beaver Creek, located at 136 E. Thomas Place.
“It’s an institutional class of asset,” said Darrington. “It really is prime beachfront type property at the base of Beaver Creek. It truly is one of the best luxury hotels in the market if not the best location in the market.
“Because of that there was a lot of interest in Park Hyatt Resort & Spa,” he continued, adding a large pool of national and international buyers were drawn to the asset.
“The interest, in part, was driven by the fact that institutional buyers are looking at markets across the country and have come to realize over the last three years these mountain markets, Vail and Beaver Creek in particular, are high-barrier-to-entry markets. In nearly all of the markets in the U.S. today, new supply is an issue, including in Denver, and what makes these mountain resort towns unique is there are extreme barriers to entry and supply is not an issue.”
Beaver Creek, noted Darrington, has no supply on the horizon in this market segment, making properties like Park Hyatt Beaver Creek good, safe bets for long-term investments.
Concurrent with the completion of the acquisition, Ashford Prime financed the hotel with a $67.5 million nonrecourse mortgage loan. The loan is interest only and provides for a floating interest rate of Libor plus 2.75 percent with a two-year term and three one-year extension options subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions.
Park Hyatt Beaver Creek had revenue per available room of $270.92 for the 12 months ending Jan. 31.
Built in 1989, Park Hyatt Beaver Creek saw more than $7.5 million in capital improvements over the past several years.
The resort features rooms that average more than 465 square feet, 23 suites, a 30,000-sf spa, more than 20,000 sf of flexible meeting and event space, the 8100 Mountainside Bar & Grill, 18,800 sf of fully leased retail space and ski-in/ski-out access to Beaver Creek Mountain.
The property will continue to be operated as a Park Hyatt under a management agreement with Hyatt.
