Blackstone pays $10.2M for hotel in Weston

An affiliate of the Blackstone Group, a New York-based private equity giant, just paid $10.2 million for an extended-stay hotel in Weston.

The deal includes the TownPlace Suites Fort Lauderdale Weston, a two-building hotel with 94 rooms located at 1545 Three Village Road.

It was built in 2001 by a Florida company called Three Village Hotel Associates, whose managing members are Ronald Franklin of Pinnacle Hotel Management and the late Richard Vilardo, a Maryland-based developer.

The company and its partner East Colonial Property, an Orlando firm headed by the Chira family of developers, originally paid Marriott International $1.154 million to buy the two acres where it build the hotel. But before construction started, East Colonial filed a quit-claim deed to relinquish its stake in the property, according to Broward County property records.

TownPlace Suites is a Marriott brand of extended-stay hotels that’s geared toward business travelers. At this particular property, guests have access to coin-operated laundry machines, limousine service, complimentary wifi and suites equipped with kitchenettes.

After nearly 15 years of ownership, Three Village has sold its hotel to Blackstone for just under $108,511 per room. This is the second South Florida purchase Blackstone has made with a Pinnacle affiliate in recent months: in December, the company paid $17.4 million for another Marriott-branded hotel in Weston.

The private equity firm has $175 billion worth of assets under management, and Jon Gray, its global head of real estate has expressed a favorable bias toward South Florida.

“I’m a believer in Miami. I’m a believer in the state of Florida. The key here is having the staying power,” Gray said at a recent real estate conference at the Four Seasons Hotel Miami.