Broker CBRE Hotels arranged the sale of a 196-room resort north of Tampa called Plantation on Crystal River despite its small size and remote location.
CBRE Hotels’ Paul Weimer said in a prepared statement that the seller completed a successful renovation of the resort, and returned it to profitability, but marketing the property “was somewhat challenging due to the size of the resort and the tertiary location.”
Nevertheless, CBRE Hotels attracted multiple offers for the resort, including the winning offer from “a private buyer who was able to close a relatively complex transaction,” the hospitality arm of CBRE said in a press release. The brokerage firm did not disclose the sale price.
Weimer represented the seller of Plantation at Crystal River together with CBRE Hotels’ Christian Charre, Natalie Castillo and Drew Noecker. The buyer’s representatives were Scout Plantation Owner, LLC, and Hilda Allen of Hilda Allen Real Estate.
The resort, which opened in 1962, is located a one-hour drive north of Tampa on the banks of the Three Sisters Springs in Kings Bay, the sole location in North America where visitors can legally swim among endangered West Indian manatees.
The 232-acre property features a dive shop, an Aveda spa, four food and beverage outlets, a 27-hole golf course, 2,100 linear feet of waterfront, and nearly 33,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting space.