Blackstone Buys Brickell City Centre’s East Miami Hotel

Blackstone bought the 352-key East Miami hotel at Brickell City Centre.

Funds affiliated with New York-based Blackstone bought the 40-story hotel at 788 Brickell Plaza in Miami from funds managed by Honolulu, Hawaii-based Trinity Investments and New York-based Certares, according to the sellers’ news release. The price wasn’t disclosed.

East Miami is home to rooftop venue Sugar and also has 89 serviced apartments.

The sale marks the second time the hotel has traded in the past four years. In 2021, Trinity and Certares bought East Miami for $174 million from the developer, Swire Properties. Deeds recorded for that sale show the price was $120.3 million, but the larger price reported by media outlets likely is due to the addition of furniture and fixtures.

Miami-based Swire, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Swire Properties, completed East Miami in 2016 as part of the Brickell City Centre mixed-use complex that spans about five city blocks. Aside from the hotel, the complex consists of about 500,000 square feet of retail; the 43-story Reach and Rise condo buildings; and a pair of office buildings.

Blackstone, an alternative asset management giant led by CEO Stephen A. Schwarzman, had about $1.2 trillion in assets under management at the end of the second quarter, according to its website.

The firm has been active in South Florida, including selling off industrial properties in recent years. In June, the firm and its industrial properties arm, Link Logistics, sold a 43.7-acre development site planned for offices and warehouses at 12691 Northwest LeJeune Road in Opa-locka for $105.7 million. The deal brought Blackstone and Link Logistics’ South Florida sales since November to more than $1 billion.

In April, Blackstone paid $115.9 million for the 359-unit Solea at Miami Lakes apartment complex at 17405 Northwest 94th Court in Miami Lakes. The firm has also financed South Florida projects this year, providing a $300 million loan in May for Karim Alibhai’s Gencom and Edgardo DeFortuna’s Fortune International Group’s renovation of the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne at 455 Grand Bay Drive, and planned renovation of the Grand Bay Club at 425 Grand Bay Drive in Key Biscayne. The debt was a refinancing of a previous loan.

In the past five years, Brickell has emerged as an epicenter of South Florida’s luxury condo market and also became a magnet for out-of-state companies expanding and moving to South Florida.

The neighborhood has hosted continuing investment sales activity over the past year, despite elevated interest rates, a slower in-migration of new-to-market firms and other economic headwinds. Some buyers closed their purchases with all cash, avoiding more expensive financing.

In May, Melo Group paid more than $200 million for the 2.8-acre Brickell City Centre development site at 700-799 Brickell Avenue. The seller, Swire, canceled its planned office supertall on the site, citing a “challenging” office market amid slower preleasing. Also at Brickell City Centre, Dubai-based hospitality firm Kerzner International bought a nearly 1-acre development site at 9 Southeast Sixth Street that’s proposed for 350 condos and 180 hotel keys for $45 million.

Swire continued cashing out of Brickell City Centre this year, selling its 75 percent stake in the retail and parking portion at the complex to Simon Property Group for $512 million in June.

Spanish billionaire Amancio Ortega, known for closing his deals in all cash, is under a $275 million contract for the 30-story Sabadell Financial Center at 1111 Brickell Avenue.