May 9, 2022

Brookfield Buys Watermark Lodging Trust for $3.8 Billion in Cash

May 6, 2022 | Patrick Clark | Bloomberg

Private real estate funds managed by Brookfield Asset Management Inc. agreed to buy Watermark Lodging Trust, whose properties include the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne in Miami and the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa.

The all-cash transaction values Watermark at $3.8 billion, including debt, according to a statement Friday. Also among the lodging company’s 25 properties are the Marriott Sawgrass Golf Resort & Spa in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, and the Ritz-Carlton Bacara in Santa Barbara, California, according to its website. 

The deal comes during a global lodging recovery led by U.S. leisure travelers, who have shelled out for weekend stays at resorts and drive-to destinations. That’s led hotel executives to predict a record summer even as corporate travel remains subdued. 

“Hotels and resorts of this scale and quality are difficult to replicate,” Lowell Baron, chief investment officer in Brookfield’s Real Estate Group, said in the statement. “This portfolio is well- positioned given its concentration in high barrier to entry coastal destinations, gateway cities and the Sun Belt.”