Carlyle finalizes Postcard Inn sale

A Rhode Island-based hotel investment firm has closed on the purchase of the 196-room Postcard Inn on the Beach for $47.4 million.

Procaccianti Cos. bought the 6300 Gulf Blvd. property, on St. Pete Beach, from The Carlyle Group. The Washington, D.C.-based company, with $174 billion in investments under management, had owned the hotel since buying it for $32.5 million in February 2015, according to property records.

Rob Leven, Procaccianti's chief investment officer, called the 8-acre Postcard Inn property, which features 300 feet of beachfront, an “irreplaceable location.”

Carlyle also completed a series of improvements to the 60-year-old, Art Deco property during its ownership, including renovating guest rooms and common areas.

Daniel Peek, a senior managing director of commercial real estate brokerage firm Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP and head of its hotel group, who represented Carlyle in the sale, says Cranston, R.I.-based Procaccianti's purchase underscores that Tampa-area hotels are “key targets for institutional hotel investors.”

Peek and HFF colleagues Preston Reid, Alexandra Lalos, Wyatt Krapf, Scott Wadler and Lauren O'Neill worked on the transaction and helped arrange a seven-year, fixed-rate loan with BankUnited for Procaccianti. Law firm Greenberg Traurig PA represented the bank in the $34 million debt placement.

Postcard Inn becomes the second Gulf Coast hotel Procaccianti has acquired this year. In July, the company bought the 119-room Staybridge Suites in St. Petersburg for $20.5 million, according to Pinellas County property records.

That five-story property, at 940 Fifth Ave. S., is two blocks from Bayfront Health St. Petersburg Hospital and Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital.

Both properties will be managed by TPG Hotels & Resorts, a Procaccianti affiliate that is among the largest managers and operators of lodging properties in the U.S.

In all, TPG Hotels manages more than 60 properties containing in excess of 18,000 rooms, and as a company generates more than $840 million in annual revenue.