Two beachfront hotels get $105 million in refinancing

The St. Pete Beach hotels, bought for $100 million three years ago, have undergone major renovations in recent years.

By Louis Llovio
| 1:28 p.m. May 26, 2022
| 2 Free Articles Remaining!

Bellwether Beach Resort, one of two hotel properties that are part of a $105 million refinancing package.

Tampa Bay-Lakeland

Two popular St. Pete Beach resorts have been refinanced for $105 million.

The properties — Bellwether Beach Resort and the Beachcomber Beach Resort — are just a couple blocks from each other and sit on a total of 10 acres of beachfront property.

The resorts, owned by the Miami real estate investment firm Gencom, recently underwent major renovations. As part of that work, The Grand Plaza Beach Hotel & Beach Resort was renamed Bellwether.

Gencom bought the resorts January 2019 for a combined $100 million. At the time, the company and its investment partners on the purchase committed another $24 million to renovate, upgrade and rebrand the properties.

The refinancing was put together by CBRE’s Hotel Debt & Structured Finance Team, which secured the financing through German lenders.

Karim Alibhai, Gencom’s principal, says in a statement the location of the properties and strong pre-renovation performance “generated highly attractive financing options, despite current market volatility.”

Based on the combined 258 rooms, $105 million refinancing breaks down to just shy of $407,000 per key.