Gencom and White Bridge buy downtown Miami InterContinental hotel for $300M

Karim Alibhai's Gencom and White Bridge Capital just completed a nine-figure acquisition of the InterContinental Miami high-rise hotel in downtown Miami for $300 million, according to Bloomberg. The Miami-based firms bought the 34-story, 652-room waterfront hotel overlooking Biscayne Bay at 100 Chopin Plaza from the Chinese Dajia Insurance Group’s Strategic Hotels & Resorts, Bloomberg reported.

The deal works out to $460,123 per key, which is 9 percent above the average price per room for Florida full-service hotels, according to MSCI Real Capital Analytics. The sellers recently completed a property-wide renovation that updated guest rooms, the Club InterContinental Lounge, pool cabanas and the SkyLawn outdoor event space.

The IHG Hotels & Resorts-brand hotel features Toro Toro, the rooftop Bluewater, Ole, Starbucks and Freddy’s Speakeasy. This deal marks Gencom’s second InterContinental-branded property, following its acquisition of the 607-room InterContinental New York Times Square in December with White Bridge, a real estate private investment and credit advisory firm primarily for Latin American family offices.

RelatedGencom buys intercontinental Miami hotel for $300 million

In February, the companies also acquired the 253-key Ritz-Carlton Central Park in Manhattan for $320 million. With $8 billion in assets under management, Gencom’s Miami portfolio includes the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne and a majority stake in the Ritz-Carlton Coconut Grove. Florida is currently outperforming the national hotel investment market, accounting for 22 percent of U.S. hotel sales volume as investors poured $7.2 billion into the state's hotel properties. That is one way to keep busy between flights.

Photo: MINEIA MARTINS, via Pexels