Jonathan Gray, Michael Dell and Boca Raton Resort (Credit: Booking)
Billionaire Michael Dell paid $461.6 million for the waterfront 1,047-room Boca Raton Resort & Club in one of the largest hotel sales in South Florida in recent years.
Property records reveal the Blackstone Group sold the 337-acre resort, at 501 East Camino Real, to Dell’s MSD Partners for nearly $441,000 per room. Goldman Sachs provided a $170 million deal to MSD Partners to finance the purchase.
The companies announced the property was under contract earlier this year, but declined to provide a purchase price at the time.
The resort, which was developed in 1926, includes two 18-hole golf courses, a 50,000-square-foot spa, seven swimming pools, 30 tennis courts, a full-service 32-slip marina, 13 restaurants and bars, and 200,000 square feet of meeting space. It’s managed by Hilton under the Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts brand.
Jeffrey Davis and Gregory Rumpel of JLL represented Blackstone in the deal.
Blackstone invested more than $300 million into renovating the resort since it purchased it 15 years ago. It was designed by Addison Mizner.
Blackstone bought the Boca Raton property in 2004 in a $1.25 billion deal that also included Bahia Mar and Pier 66 in Lauderdale, as well as two resorts in Naples.
MSD Partners is an investment adviser that was formed in 2009 by the Dell Technologies founder, as well as principals of his private investment firm, MSD Capital.
Dell was also rumored to be the buyer of 1 Hotel South Beach, a deal that fell through. The Miami Beach hotel ultimately sold to Host Hotels for $610 million, or $1.42 million per room, in February.
Blackstone made headlines this week when it paid $18.7 billion for warehouse properties spanning 179 million square feet across the U.S. It was one of the largest industrial real estate deals in history.