Trending
Ex-Marcus & Millichap brokers form hotel-focused firm
Kabani Hotel Group’s partners represented clients on the sale of 49 hotels totaling almost $500M between 2022 and last year
A quintet of ex-Marcus & Millichap brokers formed their own firm, focusing on hotel deals in Florida and across the U.S.
Ahmed Kabani, a former leader of Marcus & Millichap’s national hospitality group, launched Miami-based Kabani Hotel Group, a press release states. Joining Kabani as partners are Luis Garino, Suraj Dalal, Kian McLean, and Lucas Mondino.
Kabani joined Marcus & Millichap in 2008 and left in January, he said. His four partners worked for the brokerage between 2021 and last year, Kabani added.
Ryan Nee, a Marcus & Millichap broker who leads the firm’s South Florida division, said Kabani team’s departure was amicable. “We wish Ahmed and his team all the best in their future endeavors,” Nee wrote in an email. “And we are grateful for the contributions they have made during their time at our firm.”
In an email, Garino said that between him, Kabani and the three other brokers, they represented clients on the sale of 49 hotels in Florida and other states totaling almost $500 million in 2022 and 2023, the release states. During that same span, the five brokers sold hotels worth $135.4 million just in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, Garino said.
“While our team was doing great at Marcus & Millichap, we felt it was time to branch off and create something that would cater specifically to the hospitality and development world,” Garino wrote. “To provide the best services to our clients we believe it is important to have the ability to expand freely within the states and all the foreign markets.”
Last year, Kabani’s team brokered the $28 million sale of the 253-key Sheraton Suites Fort Lauderdale at Cypress Creek. They represented the seller, Tampa Bay real estate investor Ben Mallah, and the buyer, an investment group led by Arif Butt, Garino said.
The quintet also represented the sellers and the buyers of three separate deals in Florida City between 2022 and last year for a combined $18 million, Garino said. The deals involved a Holiday Inn, an Econo Lodge and a Baymont Inn. Also in 2022, the group brokered the sale of two La Quinta Inn & Suites properties near Miami International Airport for $32.5 million.
“As for the new beginnings, our company [Kabani Hotel Group] is working on a few deals here in South Florida which should become public within the next month or so,” Garino wrote.
Last year, five other members of Marcus & Millichap’s South Florida hospitality division switched over to Cushman & Wakefield in Boca Raton. They previously worked in Marcus & Millichap’s Fort Lauderdale office.