Northwood Investors pays $149 million for Waldorf Astoria, Naples Grande

BUYER: NWNG LLC (principals: Erwin Aulis, John Kukral, Jonathan Wang and Michael Sullivan), New York City
SELLER: Lehill Partners LP
PROPERTY: 475 Seagate Drive, various units
PRICE: $140.49 million

BUYER: NWNG Golf LLC (principals: Erwin Aulis, John Kukral, Jonathan Wang and Michael Sullivan), New York City
SELLER: Panthers Grey Oaks LLC
PROPERTY: 7760 Golden Gate Parkway and 7220 Golden Gate Parkway and 7235 Premier Drive, Naples
PRICE: $8.55 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $19.5 million, December 1998
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, New York City

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Affiliates of New York City-based Northwood Investors purchased the 474-room Waldorf Astoria Naples resort for $140.49 million and the 18-hole Naples Grande Golf Course for $8.55 million.

The Waldorf Astoria price equated to $296,400 per room. The price for the 163-acre Rees Jones-designed Naples Grande Golf Course property amounts to $474,728 per hole or $52,508 per acre.

Northwood will operate the hotel under the Waldorf Astoria brand.

Originally built as the Registry Resort, Blackstone acquired the property as part of its 2004 acquisition of Wayne Huizenga's Boca Resorts Inc. The resort has 474 guestrooms including 29 suites with views of the gulf and 50 bungalow suites. Surrounded by 20 acres of mangrove estuary, the property also features three miles of beach frontage, more than 100,000 square feet of meeting and event space and six on-site restaurants and bars. Other amenities include three heated outdoor pools with a 100-foot waterslide, a full-service luxury spa, 8,000-square-foot fitness center, business center and tennis facility.

Built in 2000, the Naples Grande Golf Course is a private par 72, 6,955-yard course. It was named one of North America's “Top 100 Resort Courses” by Golfweek Magazine and called one of the “Top 50 Courses in Florida” with a 4.5-star ranking by Golf Magazine.

HFF marketed the property on behalf of the seller, an affiliate of Blackstone. Daniel Peek, Max Comess, Paul Hsu, Alexandra Lalos and Cyrus Vazifdar led the HFF investment sales team.

“It was a great asset with a lot of opportunity,” Peek says. “The appetite for high-end resorts in Florida, or generally, is as strong as it has been this cycle. Certainly the hotel industry has recovered a great bit, but the resort industry is not as far along. We are still in the stages of a recovery.”

Northwood Investors is a privately held real estate investment adviser that was founded in 2006 by John Kukral, the former president and CEO of Blackstone Real Estate Advisors.