Blackstone Offloads Turtle Bay Resort in Hawaii for $725M

Blackstone (BX) is selling Turtle Bay Resort on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii, for $725 million — double what it paid for in 2018.

Host Hotels & Resorts bought the 450-room resort on 1,300 acres and plans to rebrand it as a Ritz-Carlton. The deal comes six years after Blackstone put down $332 million in acquiring the property, according to attorneys for both the buyers and the sellers.

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The deal will officially close in the third quarter of 2024.

“This transaction is an excellent outcome for our investors and a testament to Blackstone’s ability, including through the pandemic, to transform iconic, luxury hospitality assets,” Rob Harper, head of real estate asset management for Blackstone in the Americas, said in a statement. 

While Harper said the real estate leviathan had spent money repositioning the resort over its time owning it, Blackstone declined further comment regarding how much was invested in renovations.

The renovations included a facelift to guest rooms, bungalows, the lobby, pools, restaurants, retail spaces, meeting space, the spa, a club lounge, building systems and the exterior, according to Host Hotels & Resorts.

“Oahu is a high-demand leisure destination with consistently high occupancy, an internationally diverse demand base, and high barriers to entry, resulting in slightly negative supply growth historically and essentially no anticipated near-term supply,” James Risoleo, CEO of Host, said in a statement. “In addition, because of the Resort’s recent transformational renovation, we do not expect meaningful capital expenditures in the near term.”

Eastdil Secured, JLL (JLL) and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking acted as brokers and financial advisers while Simpson Thacher & Bartlett provided legal counsel for Blackstone and announced the deal. It’s unclear who brokered the deal on behalf of the buyer.

The transaction included a 49-acre parcel that can be developed into another resort amenity. Host paid $50 million for the parcel.

Host projects that the resort will generate $980 in revenue per available room, a metric known as RevPAR in the hotel industry.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.