Blackstone Real Estate Acquire Sunseeker Resort
Blackstone Real Estate-affiliated funds on Monday announced that it has agreed to acquire Sunseeker Resort Charlotte Harbor from Allegiant Travel Company for $200 million.
The resort, which opened in December 2023 in southwest Florida as Allegiant’s first hotel venture, spans 22 waterfront acres on Gulf Coast of Florida with multiple food and beverage food and beverage (F&B) concepts, two pools, a spa, a fitness center, a rooftop adult pool and bar, a championship golf course and more than 60,000 sq. ft. feet of combined indoor meeting space.
Scott Trebilco, Senior Managing Director at Blackstone Real Estate, said that the acquisition of this brand new, highly-amenitised resort demonstrates their strong conviction in hospitality and travel and the continued growth in group-oriented destinations. Allegiant has built a fantastic property and they were looking forward to bring their extensive experience with large scale resorts to Sunseeker, he said.
Allegiant Travel Company’s CEO Gregory C Anderson said that Blackstone’s extensive hospitality holdings and their execution capabilities make them the ideal counterparty for this transaction and also to help realise the full potential of Sunseeker Resort.
“Furthermore, it supports Allegiant’s strategy centered around the airline and we plan to use the proceeds from the sale to repay debt and strengthen our balance sheet,” he added.
Barclays served as financial advisor to Allegiant on this transaction, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2025, subject to satisfying customary conditions.
Financial Hiccups
The property has been facing major financial challenges since it opened with Allegiant Executive Chairman and outgoing CEO Maurice Gallagher saying last year that all options were on the table for the property, including a potential sale. At the time, the company expected a cash loss of $15 million for 2024.
Allegiant’s latest quarterly earnings showed that the resort’s occupancy was 70% with an ADR of $284 (not including resort fees) and had an adjusted EBIDTA of $4.8 million. Allegiant also reported a $3.4 million non-operating loss due to the extinguishment of debt secured by the property.
It may be recalled that Allegiant announced plans to develop the resort in 2017 and works commenced after two years, with an estimated expenditure of $500 million. However, when COVID surfaced, the works were suspended for more than a year and by 2022, Allegiant informed the investors that the final cost would likely exceed $600 million.
When the property was finally opened in late 2023, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that Allegiant’s final cost was $720 million.
The property was also impacted by Hurricane Ian in 2022, resulting in $35 million in damage. It also suffered property damage related to Hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024, which was approximately $5.7 million.
For its Q4 2024 earnings, Allegiant recorded an impairment charge (an accounting measure that reflects a decrease in the value of an asset below) for the property of $321.8 million.
