The 43-year-old InterContinental Miami has traded hands for the first time in more than 20 years.
Available from Gencom
The hotel is more than 40 years old at 100 Chopin Plaza
Miami-based firm Gencom and White Bridge Capital acquired the 652-key waterfront hotel from an entity traced to Strategic Hotels & Resorts, which is owned by China’s Daija Insurance Group, according to a release.
Gencom declined to disclose the price. A person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that the sale was for about $300M.
“InterContinental Miami is an important addition to Gencom’s portfolio and an important opportunity to expand its presence in one of the most dynamic and globally recognized markets in the country,” Gencom Chief Investment Officer Alessandro Colantonio said in a statement.
Strategic Hotels & Resorts bought a hotel at 100 Chopin Plaza, next to Bayfront Park and right on the water, in 2005 for $52.2M, according to public records, although hotels often trade for more than real estate value.
Before the sale, Strategic Hotels & Resorts renovated the interior of the 34-story hotel room and Club InterContinental Lounge and revamped the pool cabanas and SkyLawn event room.
Gencom, a hospitality company led by Karim Alibhai, and White Bridge Capital, which advises wealthy families mainly from Latin America and Southern Europe, plan to update the lobby and food and beverage options.
“Given the recently completed renovation, we can focus on strengthening the revenue between the rooms, meetings and events, and dinner while building on the improved guest experience in a market with substantial barriers to entry, which last continues to be a key theme in the company’s broader investment strategy,” Managing Director of Acquisitions Gencom Ignasi Puig in a statement.
The deal added more than $ 1B Gencom has spent to acquire luxury hotels on the East Coast in the last few years, mainly consisting of the Ritz-Carlton hotel, and most of which invested millions in upgrades.
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Bisnow/Chloe Gallivan
Hotel Investment Group by Jeff Higley of Northstar and Karim Alibhai of Gencom
The company acquired full control of the Marriott brand’s Key Biscayne location for more than $400M by 2024 and bought back a majority stake in the Ritz-Carlton Coconut Grove earlier in the year. The company also spent $320M in February on the 253-key Ritz-Carlton New York.
Gencom also bought another InterContinental brand hotel in a joint venture for $230M in New York in December and spent $300M on Thompson Central Park with 587 rooms by the end of 2024.
The company’s acquisition strategy is generally driven towards assets whose owners can no longer invest in properties, Alibhai said on stage at the Advisory, Lodging and Investment Summit for the Caribbean and Latin America in April.
Alibhai said Bisnow in an interview among the panel at the conference that Gencom is looking for other acquisition targets in California, where some assets were involved in distressed sales.
“You can find yourself in this situation where you are distressed because the position is not right,” Alibhai said on stage at the ALIS conference in April. “He didn’t manage to his best, he was hungry [capital expenditures].”