Blackstone buys Westin hotel, Convergent Capital buys nearby Knights Point

BUYER: Harbour Island Owner LLC (Blackstone Real Estate Advisors LP), New York
SELLER: Wilder Corp. of Delaware
PROPERTY: 725 S. Harbour Island Blvd., Tampa
PRICE: $39 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $24.6 million, March 2005
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, New York City

BUYER: CCP Harbour Island LLC (Convergent Management LLC), Tampa
SELLER: Wilder Corp. of Delaware
PROPERTY: 601 S. Harbour Island Blvd. and additional land on a portion of South Harbour Island Boulevard, Tampa
PRICE: $7.5 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $8.2 million, August 2002
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Meridian Partners, Tampa

PLANS, DESCRIPTION:
Wilder Corp. has sold the 299-room The Westin Tampa Harbour Island and nearby Knights Point Retail Center in downtown Tampa.

Prominent investment and advisory firm Blackstone purchased the 10-story Westin for $39 million, which equates to $130,435 per room. Tampa-based private equity firm Convergent Capital Partners purchased the 111,820-square-foot Knights Point retail center for $7.5 million.

The price for the Knights Point equated to $67 per square foot. That figure is lower than the two-year average price per square foot for retail space ($138) in the Tampa Bay area, according to the CoStar Group.

Blackstone previously leased the 359,572-square-foot hotel. Built in 1987, it features an outdoor swimming pool, business center, 725 South restaurant, Westin Workout Fitness Studio and 12 meeting rooms and 18,032 square feet of function space.

The two-story Harbour Island office and retail development houses two main tenants: Jackson's Bistro and Ocean Services, along with several other businesses. The retail and adjacent parking garage were both built in 1985.

Convergent and Blackstone have announced plans to work together to renovate the properties and shared exterior areas.

Santosh Govindaraju, CEO of Convergent, says his company plans to bring in new high-end restaurants to the ground floor retail at Knights Point and build-out a 60- to 70-slip marina. One of the firm's goals, he says, is to turn the property into more of a focal point on the riverfront, particularly to the boating community.

“While day-to-day operations at the Westin will not change, we look forward to working in collaboration with Convergent to renovate this property, making this a premier destination,” Glenn Alba, managing director of Blackstone, says in a press release.

Convergent Capital Partners mortgaged the Knights Point property to Centennial Bank for $7.6 million.