Aby Rosen’s RFR expands downtown Miami portfolio with $26M hotel purchase

UPDATED, April 28, 10 a.m.: In a four-month span, Aby Rosen’s RFR Holding paid nearly $107 million for two adjacent downtown Miami properties, including a recent $25.7 million hotel purchase.

An affiliate of New York-based RFR acquired the Yve Hotel Miami at 316 Northeast Second Street, also known as 146 Biscayne Boulevard, according to records. RFR paid $106,846 per key for the 241-room hotel completed in 1926.

The buyer obtained a $39.6 million mortgage from an affiliate of New York-based MSD Partners, records show.

An affiliate of Host Hotels & Resorts, a publicly traded hospitality development firm based in Bethesda, Maryland, unloaded the 17-story building for $32 million less than its purchase price seven years ago. In 2014, Host paid $57.5 million, according to records.

In January, RFR closed an $81.1 million deal for 100 Biscayne, a 30-story office tower next door to Yve Hotel Miami, records show. Rosen’s firm bought the building from a partnership led by East End Capital that had been mired in litigation over allegations of mismanagement. MSD Partners also provided RFR with a $67 million loan for the 100 Biscayne purchase, records show.

RFR also owns the W South Beach and a retail building on Miami Beach’s Lincoln Road.

Hotel properties in South Florida are suddenly hot again. The region has seen four hotel deals this month, including RFR’s purchase of Yves Hotel Miami. Cambridge Lansdowne paid $30.5 million for the Urbanica Meridian Hotel in Miami Beach’s South of Fifth neighborhood, DiamondRock Hospitality bought a Kimpton-branded hotel in Fort Lauderdale for $18.9 million, and a partnership between Electra America Hospitality Group and Korman Communities paid $83.9 million for a 217-micro-unit building in West Palm Beach that was converted into an AKA Hotel.