MIAMI—LaPlaya Beach Resort, a 189-key luxury boutique resort on the Gulf of Mexico in Naples, FL, has traded hands. The sale price: $185.5 million.

Daniel C. Peek, HFF senior managing director and head of the firm's hotel group, managing director Max Comess, director Chris Drew, and real estate analysts Alexandra Lalos and Maxx Carney represented the seller, a partnership between affiliates of Halstatt and Noble House Hotels & Resorts, Ltd.  Pebblebrook Hotel Trust purchased the hotel free and clear of debt. Noble will continue to manage LaPlaya under a new operating agreement.

“The purchase and sale of LaPlaya is significant and underlines the continued strong recovery of the resort sector nationwide and the broad institutional appeal of this segment,” says Peek.  “There has never been greater demand for this asset class in the global real estate capital markets than today.”

In 2002, LaPlaya saw a transformative renovation and expansion of its three waterfront buildings on six acres along Naples' famed Vanderbilt Beach. The hotel has won awards from Condé Nast Traveler, Wine Spectator and Travel + Leisure and caters to upscale clientele from around the world. 

The resort is home to the Baleen Restaurant, a 4,500-square-foot day spa, 8,000 square feet of indoor meeting space, two resort-style swimming pools, a 23-slip marina and the La Playa Beach Club, a private-membership club that generates income from membership sales, annual dues and ancillary revenue from club members throughout the property. Although it was not included in the sale, LaPlaya's 18-hole golf club will continue to serve LaPlaya's guests and members.

“LaPlaya was aggressively pursued by both public and private companies,” says Comess. “The exceptionally strong performance of the hotel, its best-in-class management team, pristine physical condition and high barriers against competition all fueled investors' interest.”

The Naples hotel market has experienced rapid growth in recent years, posting record tourism in 2014, record international visitation and record investor interest.  The local economic drivers are also attractive, from an expanding and diversifying local economy, to high barriers to construction, to leisure amenities.

HFF notes that expanded airlift has also increased accessibility to feeder markets such as the Northeastern US, which has attracted a new, often younger and more affluent customer base to the region's resorts, yielding impressive hotel performance market-wide. According to Smith Travel Research, the Naples market achieved an aggregate average room rate of $202.38 and revenue per available hotel room of $136.10 in 2014 . Those metrics, according to Peek, that are on par with Miami and exceed the performance of major US markets such as Boston and Los Angeles.

“Naples has emerged in recent years as one of the most exciting and strongest growth markets in the U.S. across all real estate classes,” says Lalos. “Owners in this market have seen a considerable increase in the value of their holdings as global investors continue to be attracted to the positive trends and evolving Naples story."