Qatari royals sell SLS Brickell hotel for $53.5M

Members of Qatar’s ruling royal family, the Al Thanis, sold the SLS Brickell hotel in Miami for $53.5 million. The Albanian conglomerate Kastrati Group purchased the property.

Kastrati, through an entity listing Miami attorney Charles Ratner as its president, bought the 124-key hotel at 1300 South Miami Avenue in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood, Ratner said. The deal breaks down to about $431,500 per room.

Miami-based broker Jordan Karp represented the Al Thanis and Kastrati. Stefano Santoro with Disruptive Real Estate assisted Karp on the buyer’s side, according to a press release. The brokers involved in the off-market deal all declined to comment about the true identity of the buyer.

The purchase marks the first in the U.S. for Kastrati, led by Shefqet Kastrati. The Albanian firm has holdings in oil and fuel, insurance, construction, infrastructure and more, according to its website.

Ratner has represented high-profile Miami and Miami Beach clients in recent years, including real estate investor and former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine, and Michael Simkins, who heads Lion Development Group. 

In 2018, an entity affiliated with the Al Thanis paid $43 million for the SLS Brickell hotel. The seller was the project’s developer, the Coconut Grove-based Related Group, records show. Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is the Emir of Qatar.

Related completed the 54-story mixed-use tower designed by French architect Philippe Starck and Miami-based Arquitectonica in 2016. The hotel component includes 58,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor event space, two ground-floor restaurants, three bars and lounges, a rooftop pool terrace and two ballrooms. The hotel is managed by Accor Hotels, a French hospitality company. 

In April, Karp also brokered the sale of an SLS Brickell restaurant space on behalf of the Al Thanis. Robert Rivani’s Black Lion Investment Group paid $10 million for the commercial unit that was formerly home to celebrity chef Jose Andres’ Bazaar Mar.

Related, with its partner, the Allen Morris Company, also developed the nearby SLS Lux Brickell Hotel & Residences condo-hotel at 805 South Miami Avenue. 

In another South Florida hotel deal this month, Michigan-based hoteliers Malik Abdulnoor and Sahir Malki paid $21 million for the Hampton Inn Fort Lauderdale/Plantation. The deal broke down to $327 per room for the 128-key hotel in Fort Lauderdale. In March, Abdulnoor and Malki acquired a Marriott-branded hotel with 110 rooms in Coral Springs for $17 million. 

In July, the New York-based Nakash family and their partner Michael Palmer paid $23.5 million, or $294,000 per room for the five-story Beacon South Beach Hotel in Miami Beach. 

Katherine Kallergis contributed to this report.