Trinity and Credit Suisse to buy Hollywood’s Diplomat for $850M
Joint venture is acquiring the existing hotel, and partnering with Related Group and BH Group to build two new towers
Trinity Investments is teaming up with Credit Suisse to acquire Hollywood’s Diplomat Beach Resort and adjacent properties for $850 million, The Real Deal has learned. The joint venture also tapped Miami-based Related Group and Aventura-based BH Group to co-develop two towers on the development sites.
The deal, which would be among the largest commercial sales on record in South Florida, is scheduled to close on Friday, according to a source close to one of the joint venture partners.
The deal includes the oceanfront, 1,000-room hotel at 3555 Ocean Drive, two garages with a retail component and the pair of development sites on the Intracoastal Waterway.
JLL is representing the seller, New York-based Brookfield Property Partners, which previously tried to sell the Diplomat and the adjacent sites to Aventura-based developer Jeffrey Soffer. The billionaire also planned to pay $850 million, but that deal fell apart last year.
Trinity stepped in, went under contract and sought partners that could co-develop the vacant parcels that are next to the garages at 3460 South Ocean Drive, the source said. Jaret Turkell and Scott Wadler of Berkadia arranged the sale of the development sites from Trinity to Related and BH.
One site is approved for a project with 350 condo units, and the other one is approved for a 500-room hotel with 68,000 square feet of retail.
Spokespeople for Trinity, Credit Suisse, Related Group and BH Group declined comment. A Brookfield spokesperson did not respond to an email requesting comment.
In 2014, Thayer Lodging Group acquired the Diplomat Beach Resort and adjoining sites totaling 10 acres for $460 million, records show. Later in the same year, Brookfield bought Thayer.
In 2017, Brookfield completed a $100 million renovation of the resort. In 2019, before the pandemic, Brookfield listed the Diplomat and adjacent properties for $1 billion.
The luxury hotel has 515 king rooms, 484 double rooms, 96 suites, several restaurants and more than 200,000 square feet of meeting and event space.
Trinity is a Honolulu-based real estate investment firm led by CEO Sean Hehir. In 2021, Trinity and Certares Real Estate Management paid $174 million for East, Miami, a 352-key hotel at Brickell City Centre in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood.
Related, led by CEO Jorge Pérez, and BH Group, led by Isaac Toledano, are partnering on other residential projects in South Florida. This month, the Riviera Beach Community Redevelopment Agency approved a non-binding letter of intent with Related and BH Group to build an affordable housing multifamily project in Marina Village.
BH Group and Related are also partnering with billionaire Teddy Sagi and Chicago-based Wanxiang America RE Group to build a 50-unit luxury condominium on Fisher Island. In September, the joint venture paid $122.5 million for Fisher Island’s last development site.