Host Hotels & Resorts has sold the Four Seasons Resort Orlando at Walt Disney World Resort and the Four Seasons Resort and Residences Jackson Hole in Teton Village, Wyoming, to a foreign buyer for $1.1 billion.
Orlando Owner LLC is named as the buyer, according to deeds filed Monday in Orange County. The company is managed by Coburn Packard and Ken Gerold of BDT&MSD Partners, an investment bank established by Dell Computers founder Michael Dell. The firm has multiple offices in Europe and Dubai.
The Four Seasons, which opened in 2014, is one of only three hotels in the Orlando market to earn the coveted 5-Diamond status. The 443-room luxury resort sits on 289 acres at and around 10100 Dream Tree Blvd. and provides complimentary transport to four Disney theme parks and Disney Springs. In addition to its 18-hole golf course and golf club, the resort features five pools, three tennis courts, a 13,000-square-foot spa, a Michelin-starred Spanish steakhouse called Capa and a 5-acre water park and entertainment area called Explorer Island.
Host Hotels & Resorts is one of the largest owners of luxury and upper-upscale hotels in the U.S. The Bethesda-based REIT purchased the Orlando resort hotel in 2021 for $610 million cash, which at the time set a per-room record for Orlando-area hotel sales at about $1.37 million per key. The 125-room Wyoming Four Seasons was acquired in 2022 for $315 million, or more than $2 million per key. The sale of the two properties will bring HHR an estimated 11% rate of return, according to the announcement.
The Four Seasons Resort at Walt Disney World is one of three Orlando hotels to achieve AAA’s coveted 5-Diamond status. (Rich Pope, Orlando Sentinel)
“The sale of these two iconic properties represents another important step in advancing our capital allocation strategy,” CEO James F. Risoleo said. “We are pleased with our ability to monetize two recently acquired hotels at an attractive profit and an accretive multiple, and we will continue to use our competitive advantages to create value for our shareholders.”
Paul Sexton, vice president of HREC Investment Advisory, who was not involved in the deal, said the Four Seasons deal is a bit of an outlier and not reflective of the Orlando market as a whole.
“It’s pretty interesting that they got that kind of return, given that most of the hotels in Orlando, other than luxury hotels, have only been maintaining their value,” Sexton said.
The recorded purchase price for the Orlando resort was $438 million, which almost mirrors the assessed value from the Orange County Property Appraiser. But that likely doesn’t include the full value of the deal, which would also have included additional payments for FFE (furniture, fixtures, and equipment) that are not included in the public record.
JP Morgan Chase issued a $510 million loan for the Orlando acquisition. If the loan covered 60% of the purchase price, it would put the true value of the sale closer to $850 million.
The sale excludes the ongoing condo development within the Four Seasons Private Residences in Disney’s Golden Oak community. Host Hotels and Resorts paid $30 million for the land adjacent to the hotel in 2021 and partnered with Disney to expand the luxury condo community, which has already closed over $166 million in sales across 20 units since the completion of the condo tower last November.
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