South Florida hotel investors pay $6.5M for Best Western Orlando East

A family of South Florida hotel investors paid $6.5 million last week for their first asset in Greater Orlando, buying the Best Western Orlando East Inn & Suites.

Located at 8750 E. Colonial Dr., near the intersection with S.R. 417 in east Orange County, the 4.24-acre property features a 118-key Best Western built in 1990.

The buyer was an LLC affiliate of Rakhee and Hiren Patel, the daughter and son-in-law of long-time South Florida hotel investor Daya Patel.

"I've been a motel owner for almost 40 years in Florida City, but this property was purchased by my daughter and son-in-law, who live in Fort Lauderdale," Daya Patel told GrowthSpotter on Friday. "My daughter grew up in the motel business with us and has a lot of experience. This property was owned by a friend of mine who we learned wanted to sell. The property was in good shape, it's near UCF, Orlando is growing like crazy so they saw it as a good investment."

Ahmed Kabani, first president of investments in Marcus & Millichap's Miami office, procured the buyer.

The new owners won't be relocating to Orlando, and have hired a new general manager to lead the property while retaining the rest of staff, Patel said.

A mandated Property Improvement Plan (PIP) for the hotel will be carried out in the coming year, with cosmetic updates likely to cost an additional $200,000 in investment over the next two years, he added.

Marcus & Millichap Capital Corporation coordinated a $5.2 million acquisition loan under the SBA 504 program, with 80 percent financing, a rate under 4.7 percent and 10-year term.

The seller was Colonial Hospitality LLC, an affiliate of Premier Resorts & Management out of Daytona Beach, founded by Ishwar Naran.

He previously paid $2.23 million for the hotel in 2004. Jonathan Ruprai of Marcus & Millichap's Tampa office was listing agent on the property.

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