California investment firm KHP Capital Partners made landfall in the Florida Keys last month when it purchased Blackstone Group’s Hilton Key Largo Resort for an undisclosed amount.
Now, county records have revealed just how pricey the deal was.
KHP paid nearly $62.3 million for the 200-room resort, or about $311,500 per room. That makes this one of the Florida Keys’ most expensive hotel deals in recent years. Peebles Corp. sold an 80-room hotel in Marathon early last year for $131,250 per room.
The Hilton Key Largo is a newly renovated resort located at 97000 Overseas Highway in Key Largo. It has 12 acres of waterfront grounds and 21 boat slips.
Blackstone came to own the property through its $367 million acquisition of nine hotels from MeriStar in 2006. Soon after that deal closed, the New York-based private equity giant started a $12 million renovation of the resort, which was built in 1985.
Daniel C. Peek, Max Comess and Alexandra Lalos of HFF represented Blackstone for the sale, which was announced Feb. 24.
“Key Largo in particular seems to be emerging as a new high-end resort destination in South Florida,” Comess said in the announcement. “The same transformation and flight to quality that occurred in Key West and Islamorada in recent years appears to be happening in Key Largo, the closest of the Florida Keys to Miami.”