Morris Moinian, owner of the Dylan Hotel in New York and theWyndham Sugar Bay resort in St. Thomas, has contracted to buy thesix-building complex for an estimated $10 million, or about $10,881per room, hotel brokers familiar with the history of the propertytell GlobeSt.com. New hotels, in the 900-room category, can't bebuilt for less than $100,000 per room today, area constructionindustry estimators tell GlobeSt.com.

Moinian couldn't be reached at GlobeSt.com's publicationdeadline. But Orlando area real estate lawyers who have beenfollowing the Orlando Hyatt's two-year-old bankruptcy proceedings,tell GlobeSt.com Moinian and his associates plan to invest "atleast another couple million" into renovations and retroffitings atthe property which is located off Interstate 4 and US 192 near WaltDisney World. Area brokers had speculated a new owner woulddemolish the two-story structures and develop a single, high-riseresort property.

The hotel property's owner, Orlando Hyatt Hotel Associates LP ofRockville, MD, has been under Chapter 11 protection since May 1,2002. The owner filed for US Bankruptcy Court protection aftercontesting a $29.5-million loan debt to Chicago-based LaSalle Bank.Unable to find interim financing until it could sell its assets,Orlando Hyatt Hotel Associates closed both the Hyatt Orlando andthe 281-room, 40-year-old Downtown Four Points Sheraton hotel.