Peachtree buys AC Hotel by Marriott in Aventura for $50M

233-key hotel traded for $212K per room

From left: Greg Friedman (buyer), managing principal and CEO, Peachtree Hotel Group, and David Leatherwood (seller), CEO and managing member, Norwich Partners (Peachtree Hotel Group, Norwich Partners, Booking.com, iStock)
From left: Greg Friedman (buyer), managing principal and CEO, Peachtree Hotel Group, and David Leatherwood (seller), CEO and managing member, Norwich Partners (Peachtree Hotel Group, Norwich Partners, Booking.com, iStock)

Peachtree Hotel Group scooped up an AC hotel next to Aventura ParkSquare for $49.5 million.

The Atlanta-based hospitality investment manager bought the nine-story hotel at 20805 Biscayne Boulevard from an affiliate of Norwich Partners, according to records. Peachtree took out a $46.6 million mortgage on the property from MetLife Real Estate Lending.

The deal for the 233-key property breaks down to $212,326 per room.

Records show Norwich completed the development of the AC Hotel in 2017, after paying $9.4 million for the 1.9-acre site in 2014.

Sanibel-based Norwich, led by David Leatherwood, scored a $35 million construction loan in 2015 for the hotel, which was designed by Zyscovich Architects.

The Aventura hotel also has six meeting rooms and 2,871 square feet of meeting space, according to its website.

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Spanish hotelier Antonio Catalan started the AC brand of boutique hotels in the late 1990s and merged with Marriott in 2011, resulting in AC Hotels by Marriott, according to Hospitality Design magazine.

South Florida has an AC Hotel by Marriott in Miami Beach; in Miami’s Brickell and Wynwood neighborhoods; two in Fort Lauderdale; and one each near the Sawgrass Mills mall, Dadeland Mall and Miami International Airport, according to the AC Hotel by Marriott website. Peachtree, led by Greg Friedman, has completed more than 400 deals and over $5 billion in real estate asset capitalization, according to its website.

This is not the first South Florida investment for Peachtree. The company paid $16.6 million for the Hampton Inn hotel near the Westfield Broward mall in Plantation in 2019. In 2017, Peachtree bought the Element Miami International Airport for $22 million, also from Norwich, according to a deed.

Peachtree still owns both hotels.

Overall, the South Florida hotel market has rebounded, more so than in other U.S. regions. Domestic travel picked up last year, although by mid-year South Florida hotels still were awaiting the comeback of convention and cruise business. Several multimillion-dollar deals closed in 2021.

In the biggest deal of last year, Pebblebrook Hotel Trust bought the Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort in September for $270 million.