AWH Partners Spends $20M on Boca Raton Bridge Hotel

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PALM BEACH, FL—Boca Raton Bridge Hotel has traded hands. AWH Partners, a private New York City-based equity fund, acquired the 121-room waterfront hotel in Boca Raton. News reports peg the sale price at about $20 million.

“For us, acquiring the Bridge was ideal,” AWH principal Russ Flicker said in a statement. “Not only is the property an established community icon in an enviable locale with a longtime history serving as the locals’ favorite ‘guesthouse’ for visiting friends, family, and colleagues, it affords our partnership the opportunity to return to South Florida to expand our presence and add yet another ‘hotel repositioning success story’ to our burgeoning portfolio.”

Robert Taylor of the CBRE Hotels Group in Miami collaborated with Ron Danko, executive vice president of the CBRE Hotels Group in New York, to identify a strong buyer group. The seller was a group of four individual businessmen.

“This traded at a very strong price,” Taylor tells GlobeSt.com. “This group stepped up and preempted the marketing process. They were very familiar with the market and the location. They moved very quickly and decisively and had their debt and equity in place.”

In South Florida, occupancies continue to grow and only a very limited supply of new hotel product will hit the market in the near future. Taylor reports a 10 percent to 15 percent increase a year’s time in revenue per available room, a performance metric in the hotel industry based on the average daily room rate and occupancy levels.

Built in 1976, the Boca Raton Bridge Hotel is home to the only waterfront dining in Boca Raton, the WaterColors restaurant. It also features Carmen's restaurant and two conference suites at the top floor. Located at 999 East Camino Real, the hotel offers sweeping views of the Intracoastal Waterway and Boca Inlet.

AWH is planning to redevelop the hotel. Plans call for entirely new hospitality and dining concepts, expanded waterfront amenities, as well as a new dock flanking the property’s entire Lake Boca perimeter so that diners and hotel guests will soon have the option to arrive by boat. Extensive renovations of guestrooms, restaurants, and public spaces will begin in spring 2013.

“Our past experience in Boca Raton was extremely positive,” Flicker says. “We are passionate about the market and its assets, and very much look forward to our seasoned team of designers and consultants completely transforming the hotel into a premier South Florida experience with its own newly positioned distinctive signature in the destination.”