New Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota, owner gets new name

Ashford Hospitality Prime Inc., which acquired the Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota, resort last month for a record amount for a Sarasota-Manatee lodging property, has a new name.

The Dallas-based lodging owner is now known as Braemar Hotels & Resorts Inc. and will be traded under the ticket symbol BHR.

The move is meant to differentiate the real estate investment trust from Ashford Hospitality Trust, its sister company. Ashford CEO Richard Stockton had indicated the similar names of the two companies were “confusing.

Ashford Hospitality Prime invests in more upscale and luxury properties, including the 142-room Pier House Resort & Spa in Key West; the 180-room Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands’ and the 266-room Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota, for which it paid $172.3 million, Sarasota County property records show.

In a related move, Braemar says it plans to sell the 293-room Renaissance Tampa hotel, along with a few others, that do not fit into its core strategy.

Fun fact: Braemar is the name of a Scottish village in Aberdeenshire and home to a castle of the same name, while Ashford is a village in County Wicklow, Ireland. It, too, bears the name of a castle, on the border of Mayo and Galway, which today operates as a five-star hotel. Small world.