WEST PALM BEACH, Florida – (BUSINESS WIRE) – Wheelock Street Capital announced that it has acquired The Ben – West Palm Beach, a soft-branded 208-room Marriott luxury hotel located at 251 N Narcissus Avenue in West Palm Beach, FL.
Built in 2020 as the first Marriott Autograph Collection hotel in Palm Beach County, the 208-room property serves as the centerpiece of Flagler Banyan Square, a 435,000-square-foot mixed-use lifestyle project. Conveniently located just steps from downtown West Palm Beach, the development offers residential, dining, retail, and other amenities, while The Ben features a full-service restaurant, 7,800 square feet of event space, a rooftop ballroom, offers a rooftop pool and full convenience deck with unparalleled views of the City Marina, the Intracoastal Waterway, and Palm Beach Island.
West Palm Beach, which is attracting media attention as Wall Street South, is in the midst of a development and investment renaissance with a robust housing market and strong office activity with new launches from the Northeast and elsewhere. A number of high quality new tenants including Goldman Sachs, Point72 Asset Management, Benefit Street Partners, Susquehanna, Comvest Partners, Norwest Equity Partners, Lewis Longman Walker and Sanders Capital have announced that they will build a significant presence in the market. The continued growth in office demand in West Palm Beach supports an optimistic outlook for the market, as evidenced by Wheelock’s recent SF 153,000 office development investment at 301 Clematis Street and 300 Banyan Boulevard next to The Ben.
Concord Hospitality, one of the leading hospitality developers and managers in the USA, played a key role in the conception, development and launch of the hotel. Concord, which operates a portfolio of over 130 hotels, including 23 Florida hotels, will retain management responsibilities under Wheelock’s ownership.
“The acquisition marks Wheelock’s first hotel purchase and second fund investment in the West Palm Beach market. The property’s institutional quality, A + location along the coveted Intracoastal, and the irreplaceable waterfront lifestyle in a growing South Florida market make this investment worthwhile Another ideal addition to our current acquisition criteria. Located at the intersection of the work-live-play epicenter of West Palm Beach, the property will benefit from the Group’s continued leisure and rapidly increasing demand, “said Tim Hodes, Principal and Head of Hotel Acquisitions for Capital on Wheelock Street. “We look forward to our first hospitality investment that the management of Concord will engage and work to cement the property’s position as West Palm Beach’s premier luxury hotel offering.”
CBRE Group, Inc. (“CBRE”) arranged the sale of The Ben – West Palm Beach, Autograph Collection Hotel.
About Wheelock Street Capital
Wheelock Street Capital (https://wheelockst.com/) was founded in 2008 by Rick Kleeman and Jonathan Paul, two experienced private equity investors in the real estate sector, each with over 30 years of extensive experience in real estate transactions in all major asset classes. Wheelock has raised over $ 4 billion in capital commitments from well-known institutional investors and is focused on real estate investment opportunities across the United States, in both public and private markets. Wheelock currently has its sixth fund in its value-added range, the Wheelock Street Real Estate Fund VI, and its first perpetual life fund, the Wheelock Street Long Term Value Fund. The Long Term Value Fund targets high quality cash flow investments with stable but attractive risk-adjusted returns over an investment horizon of 5 to 15 years. The company may invest, directly or with quality joint venture partners, through a variety of capital structures and transaction types, including acquisitions, reorganizations and recapitalizations. The Wheelock investment team benefits from extensive experience of world class institutional investment firms and respected real estate companies and has a 10 year track record of proven and consistent outperformance against industry benchmarks.
About Concord Hospitality Enterprises Company
As an award-winning hotel development and management company, Concord Hospitality Enterprises Company has spent the past three decades building relationships with investors, partners and outside hotel owners for more than $ 2.5 billion in premium branded hotels in the United States and Canada. As an operator, Concord Hospitality creates value from the ground up, develops and manages with a sustainable standpoint, a focus on quality and practical commitment to ensure long-term profitability and success. Concord Hospitality believes that its people are its greatest strength. With the brightest talents, the most innovative processes, and a commitment to giving back to the communities where employees live and work, Concord Hospitality strives to be a great place to work for everyone. To learn more about Concord Hospitality Enterprises Company, visit https://www.concordhotels.com/.
