ORLANDO, Fla. -- Thayer Lodging Group has completed the sale of the 1,582-room Grande Lakes Resort in Orlando, Fla., for $753 millionto CNL Hotels, company officials have announced. Thayer Lodging is an Annapolis, Md.-based private equity real estate investment firm, while CNL is based in Orlando.
The award-winning Grande Lakes Resort was developed by Thayer and Marriott International, with construction commencing in the spring of 2001. The resort opened in July 2003.
Grande Lakes contains a 584-room Ritz Carlton Hotel, a 998-room JW Marriott Hotel, more than 125,000 square feet of meeting space, a 40,000-square-foot spa, and an 18-hole championship golf course designed by Greg Norman, all located on a 500-acre site at the headwaters of the Everglades.
Ritz Carlton will continue to manage the Ritz Carlton Hotel, Spa and Golf Course and Marriott International will continue to manage the JW Marriott Hotel.
The sale of Grande Lakes concludes Thayer's sale of $1.5 billion in hotel real estate over a nine-month period. Other Thayer transactions closed in that period include the sale of the 1,334-room Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C. in July 2005 for $300 million, an eight-hotel portfolio comprising Thayer Hotel Investors II in July 2005 for $266 million; and the RIHGA Royal New York in May 2005 for approximately $190 million.
After the Grande Lakes sale, Thayer Lodging Group possesses a portfolio of 14 hotels. Thayer has sponsored five hotel investment funds for a small group of institutional investors, and its nationwide portfolio includes hotels operating under the Marriott, Hilton, Wyndham, and Six Continents family of flags.
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