Waikiki Marriott sells for $279 million

Hawaii's real estate and tourism booms were on display yet again yesterday when a Florida real estate firm announced that it and its partners were selling the 1,310-room Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort for $279 million, or about $213,000 per room.

The selling price is more than twice the amount paid for the hotel just five years ago by CNL Hotels & Resorts Inc., an Orlando-based real estate investment trust. CNL led an investor group that acquired the property from Marriott International Inc. for $130 million in 2001.

The property's buyer is Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s Whitehall Street Global Real Estate LP 2005. Whitehall executives were not available yesterday to discuss the deal.

For his part, CNL's chief executive, Thomas Hutchinson III, put a fancy gloss on what seemed a simple, time-honored strategy: to buy low and sell high.

"We evaluated the attractive price being offered and determined it was the right time to leverage the market cycle of this property, supporting our long-term strategy to take advantage of value-enhancing buying and selling opportunities," he said.

CNL owns 94 hotels and resorts in North America, including the 780-room Grand Wailea Hotel Resort & Spa on Maui. The company, which has $5.8 billion in assets, plans to use the sale's proceeds for future acquisitions of luxury resorts and high-end properties.

The deal is expected to close this quarter.