Ocean Properties buys out Zota Beach Resort partner

Ocean Properties Hotels & Resorts has bought out its financial partner in a Longboat Key resort, a sign of its confidence in the Gulf Coast hospitality market going forward.

The deal involving the Zota Beach Resort, at 4711 Gulf of Mexico Drive, was one of two dozen Ocean Properties’ lodging assets in six states that Los Angeles-based Rockwood Capital invested in in 2007, records show.

Ocean Properties added a new 84-room tower to the 103 existing room resort, the former Longboat Key Hilton, in 2017 as part of a $24 million makeover. Its ownership there dates to 2007, when it acquired the hotel for $14.4 million.

Zota Beach was valued at $67 million for purposes of the sale.

Officials at Delray Beach-based Ocean Properties did not return telephone calls for comment, or whether the Rockwood buyout would extend to other properties, including the Lido Beach Resort in Sarasota and the Resort at the Longboat Key Club, on Longboat Key.

Last October, Zota Beach was among three area properties to be named to Conde Nast Travelers’ prestigious annual readers’ choice list of Top 30 Florida resorts.

In all, Ocean Properties controls 125 hospitality properties in 15 states containing roughly 19,000 rooms, according to its website.