A subsidiary of JHM Hotels acquired the Holiday Inn Orlando International Airport for $14 million on July 16, its ninth property in the Orlando market, and plans to turn the hotel into the airport’s best for business travelers, a principal with the company told GrowthSpotter.
The Greenville, S.C.-based group, which focuses on acquiring and managing mid-level select service hotels, has properties in seven states and now owns nine hotels in Greater Orlando, six of which are near Orlando International Airport.
Located at 5750 T. G. Lee Blvd., the Holiday Inn was built in 1984 and boasts 288 rooms, reflecting a price per key of roughly $48,611. The property has been taken over by JHM Hotels Management, and renovations are still being planned for later this year to maintain the Holiday Inn flag.
Sarona Holdings, the subsidiary of JHM that bought the property, plans to follow a new vision for Holiday Inn that’s being rolled out by Intercontinental Hotels Group to position the brand as an upscale business hotel, according to a principal with Sarona.
The new owner declined to comment on a timeline for property renovations or projected budget. Contractors and vendors used for such renovations aren’t named, but the company has a list of established partners it has used with other local properties.
Orlando’s hotel market is on pace for 2015 to be a record year for property sales, but the submarket around OIA has not drawn many buyers through the first six months of the year, despite being one of the best performing.
Of more than 20 hotels in the OIA submarket, the Fairfield Inn Orlando Airport hotel is the only other property to sell this year, going in January for $11.5 million to an affiliate of Lingerfelt CommonWealth Partners out of Glen Allen, Va. Built in 1998 and with 139 rooms, the price per key was just over $83,000.
Dating back to the depths of the economic recession a few years ago, the airport’s hotel market has been one of the strongest for occupancy and revenue because it is less tourism-dominant, said Paul Sexton, vice president of HREC Investment Advisors, which specializes in the lodging industry.
Airline crews occupy hotels in the airport market, as do airline industry staff that come into Orlando for continuing education at training companies near the airport, said Sexton, who was listing broker on this sale for previous owner FelCor, a REIT out of Irving, Texas.
Cruise ship staff serving Cape Canaveral also commonly fly into Orlando and stay at airport hotels for days on end before reporting to the port.
“That market is still getting a fair amount of demand from the Lake Nona area,” Sexton added. “Airport hotels are the closest to Lake Nona as of now, and all the people coming in for development or construction in Lake Nona tend to stay at the airport market.”
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