A New York-based firm scooped up a pair of Miami Beach hotels, while an Orlando-based family office purchased a La Quinta Inn in West Palm Beach.
New York-based Blue Suede Hospitality bought the South Beach Plaza Hotel at 1401 Collins Avenue and The South Beach Plaza Villas at 1411 Collins Avenue in one deal for $26.5 million, according to records and real estate database Vizzda. In the other purchase, husband-and-wife Salim and Sapna Premji of Orlando bought the La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham West Palm Beach Airport at 1910 Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard for $13.3 million.
The three-story, 55-key South Beach Plaza was completed in 1936, and the two-story, 24-key The South Beach Plaza Villas in 1934, property and Vizzda records show. Each of the Art Deco-style buildings sits on a quarter-acre lot.
Blue Suede’s purchase of both properties breaks down to $335,443 per room.
Sellers Fahr Juneja, Abdul Buridi, Naveed Chowan and Arif Butt sold the South Beach hotels through separate entities. Records show that their affiliates paid $12.3 million for the properties in 2009.
Blue Suede, founded in 2020, also has hotels in Memphis, Tennessee; and Ann Arbor, Michigan, according to its LinkedIn page. Kenny Lipschutz is CEO.
In the West Palm deal, the Premjis bought the six-story, 103-key La Quinta Inn with the help of a $7 million loan from Wauchula State Bank, according to records and Vizzda. The hotel was completed in 1989 on 1.5 acres.
Natalie Castillo of CBRE represented the seller, an entity led by Paul Womble.
The deal marks the Premjis’ first investment in Florida’s hospitality market, Salim Premji said. The couple started investing in hotels in 2017, amassing an eight-property portfolio in Georgia.
Their La Quinta Inn purchase breaks down to $128,722 per key.
The deals come on the heels of several high-priced hotel sales across South Florida.
MCR, billed as the fourth largest hotel owner-operator nationwide, dropped $118.3 million for the 508-key Hilton Miami Airport Blue Lagoon at 5101 Blue Lagoon Drive, near the Waterford Business District, this month. That followed MCR’s $16.6 million purchase in December of the 135-key Hyatt Place Miami Airport East at 3549 Le Jeune Road in Miami.
In Hollywood, Trinity Investments and Credit Suisse Asset Management paid $850 million for the 1,000-key Diplomat Beach Resort at 3555 Ocean Drive, two garages with retail and two buildable sites, this month. The buyers tapped Related Group and BH Group to develop a pair of towers on the oceanfront development sites.
The Diplomat sale marked the biggest hotel deal in the U.S. since early 2020.