Bill Gates is ready to make a splash in Nashville real estate, joining a roster of celebrities who are bullish on Music City.
The billionaire Microsoft founder has been revealed as the buyer of the 168-room Dream Hotel in downtown, the Nashville Business Journal reported. An LLC led by developers Alex Marks and Bill Barkley was the seller.
Gates’ firm, Cascade Investment, paid $82.6 million for the hotel in June, when the identity of the buyer was unclear. The sale price equates to roughly $492,000 per room.
Cascade, founded in 1995, began making its mark on the hospitality sector in 2021, acquiring the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. Gates now owns over 70 percent of the luxury hotel brand, which carries a $10 billion valuation, according to Reuters.
The Four Seasons Nashville opened in 2022, bringing 144 condo units and 235 hotel rooms to the city’s growing luxury hotel market. GD Holdings LLC, a real estate investment firm controlled by businessman Salomon Juan Marcos Villarreal, owns the property at 100 Demonbreun Street.
The Dream Hotel, meanwhile, opened in 2019. It features six restaurant and bar options, including tateside Kitchen, Natura Nashville, Vatos Tacos and Dirty Little Secret. Marks and Barley bought the site on 4th Avenue for $2.15 million in 2014, the outlet reported.
After the pandemic delivered a blow to hotels across much of the nation, leisure travel and overall foot traffic is starting to bounce back. Now, investors are flocking to Nashville’s hotel market.
In the last month, New York City-based Dreamscape Cos. bought the historic Holston House hotel for just over $60 million, and an Atlanta-based hospitality firm paid nearly $82 million for downtown’s Holiday Inn express.
Earlier this month, country music legend Dolly Parton acquired the 211 Commerce office building, with plans to convert the downtown property into a hotel.
—Quinn Donoghue
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