JACKSONVILLE, FL—Jacksonville is seeing some hotel acquisition action this quarter. A 277-room Embassy Suites in the Baymeadows submarket just traded hands. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

HREC Investment Advisors vice president Paul Sexton and COO and senior principal Scott Stephens exclusively represented the seller during the transaction. HREC has brokered two of the three highest valued hotel transactions in the greater Jacksonville market since the start of the Great Recession.  

“RevPAR in the overall Jacksonville market was up 7.3% at yearend 2012, and up another 5.1% during the year-to-date August 2013 period,” says Sexton. “In this regard, the acquisition of the Embassy Suites was well-timed by the buyer, who will be able to capitalize on macroeconomic trends that are clearly strengthening.”

The Embassy Suites Baymeadows is located within a large and improving office market. The Baymeadows/Southside submarket is home to about 45% of all office space within the Jacksonville market.

What's more, Jacksonville is consistently rated one of the “Hottest Cities in America” for business expansions and relocations in an annual poll featured in Expansion Management Magazine. And Jacksonville has been in the “Top 10” for eight straight years and is the only city to claim the number one spot three times.

“The sale of the Embassy provides the current institutional owner with the opportunity to redeploy significant capital in a more efficient and productive manner,” Stephens says. “Likewise, it gives the buyer the opportunity to reinvent the hotel's position in the market via a comprehensive renovation and hands on management.”