Three Area Hotels Reach the Selling Block

On the selling block are the 218-room I-Drive Inn on International Drive in south Orlando, the 391-room Ramada Inn Maingate West and the 295-room Holiday Inn Maingate West, both on US 192 in Kissimmee near Walt Disney World.

Sun Hospitality Advisors, a division of Tampa-based Plasencia Group Inc., has the listings. "The properties are being sold at this time because they were foreclosed upon by the seller, and being a lender, they are not set up to operate hotels on a long-term basis," Jessica L. Corcoran, Plasencia's director of marketing and business development, tells GlobeSt.com.

"Each of these assets is well-positioned to benefit from the significant upturn in business that the Orlando market is experiencing," says Sun Hospitality vice president Robert O'Leary. "All signs point to the first three months of 2005 being a record quarter for Orlando."

O'Leary didn't disclose the individual listing prices for the properties. "The hotels are priced to sell on a trailing revenue basis," he says. "This dynamic creates an attractive opportunity for prospective buyers."

O'Leary describes the I-Drive Inn as a "limited service, interior corridor hotel," previously affiliated as a Holiday Inn Express.

The two-story Ramada Inn Maingate West is an exterior corridor hotel that is "attractively priced," O'Leary says. "The property represents a classic turnaround opportunity, well-positioned to benefit from the continued strong rebound of the Orlando lodging market."

The Holiday Inn Maingate West is a six-story, exterior corridor, mid-rise hotel that "possesses all the attributes of a resort destination property," O'Leary says.

Despite O'Leary's optimistic views, metro Orlando hotel brokers and consultants tell GlobeSt.com they don't anticipate the three properties will generate record sales prices. They say their views are based on lukewarm occupancy levels the entire market has experienced over the past two years.

"From a buyer's perspective, however, the opportunities are there to acquire a property at a price that would make it affordable to either upgrade or convert the property to a condominium community," a Kissimmee broker who says he could be involved in the transactions, tells GlobeSt.com.