Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort, Volusia, Flagler's largest, sold. Who's the buyer?
DAYTONA BEACH — New owners are expected to take the helm of the 744-room Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort, the area’s largest hotel, according to multiple sources in the destination’s hotel and tourism industry.
Columbia Sussex Corporation, based in Crestview Hills, Kentucky, is slated to become the hotel’s new owner, according to longtime Daytona Beach-area hotelier Manoj Bhoola, president and CEO of Ormond Beach-based Elite Hospitality, Inc.
“I do not know them personally,” Bhoola said, “but their reputation is to significantly improve the assets that they own and manage, so I think it’s amazing for the destination that needs to upgrade its facilities.”
Columbia Sussex Corporation is slated to close on the acquisition on Wednesday, Sept. 24, according to another source with knowledge of the transaction. The sale price was not immediately available, but it’s expected to be released in coming weeks by the Volusia County Property Appraiser’s Office.
A family-owned hotel company in business since 1972, Columbia Sussex will be both owner and operator of the Hilton, the key hotel property across from the county-run Ocean Center convention complex in the heart of the beachside tourist district in Daytona Beach.
The hotel’s current owner is Starwood Capital Group, a Greenwich, Connecticut-based company that owns hotels nationwide. Starwood paid $92.25 million for the hotel when it purchased the property in 2015, according to county property records.
Multiple emails and phone messages on Tuesday, Sept. 23, to officials at Columbia Sussex weren’t acknowledged.
The company plans to invest in a “massive renovation” of the hotel, which will remain a Hilton property, according to a source with knowledge of the transition.
The hotel that’s now the 744-room Hilton was built with the support of taxpayer money from the city in the late 1980s and opened in 1989 as a Marriott. In the years since, the hotel has faced foreclosure and changed owners and brands several times.
A look at the beachfront side of the Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort in Daytona Beach. The 744-room hotel, the area's largest, is being sold to Columbia Sussex Corporation, a Kentucky company with more than 50 years experience in the hospitality industry.
Before Starwood bought the hotel in 2015, its previous owners, a group of lenders, held an online auction for the property in 2013, but wound up not selling it at the time when no prospective buyers stepped forward.
U.S. Bank, acting on behalf of the lenders, sought to recoup the nearly $114 million owed on the property.
Daytona Hilton's new owner, Columbia Sussex, has a Florida presence
A private hotel company based in Kentucky, Columbia Sussex was founded in 1972 and is owned by the Yung family, headed by William J. Yung III in the president’s role, according to a history posted on the industry website hospitality.net.
The company owns and operates hotels across the United States, from California to Alaska, Texas to Massachusetts and New Jersey. It currently operates 40 hotels under five different brands, including Marriott Hotels, JW Marriott, Renaissance, Hilton Hotels and Resorts, Double Tree and Hyatt Regency.
In Florida, Columbia Sussex owns and operates the following properties: Sirata Beach Resort in St. Pete Beach; Marriott Orlando Airport Lakeside; Marriott Sanibel Harbour Resort & Spa in Fort Myers; Marriott Jacksonville; Marriott Tampa Westshore; and the Hilton Clearwater Beach Resort & Spa.
The landmark Coquina Clock Tower is the eye-catching centerpiece outside the beachside entrance to the Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort in Daytona Beach. The 744-room hotel, the area's largest, is being sold to Columbia Sussex Corporation, a Kentucky company with more than 50 years experience in the hospitality industry.
The company’s portfolio also includes full-service hotels and resorts such as The Boulders Resort Golf & Spa in Carefree, Arizona; Phoenix Marriott Tempe at The Buttes in Tempe, Arizona; Le Merigot JW Marriot in Santa Monica, California; Westin Atlanta Airport and Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center.
Columbia Sussex is one of the largest Marriott franchisees in the country, according to hospitality.net.
The company has been aggressively implementing a renovation program at Marriott properties that include Renaissance Dallas Addison; Dallas Marriott Las Colinas; Melville Marriott; Indianapolis Marriott North; Marriott Albany; Hilton Head Marriott Resort and Spa; Phoenix Airport Marriott and the aforementioned Tampa Marriott Westshore and Orlando Airport Marriott Lakeside.
In Daytona Beach, the company has hired Michael Weihs, general manager of The Daytona Autograph Collection hotel at One Daytona, as the new GM at the Hilton, according to a post on Weihs' LinkedIn page. Weihs also couldn’t be reached for comment.
He will replace the Hilton's longtime GM Jim Berkley, employed by Philadelphia-based Hersha Hospitality Management to oversee operations at the 744-room hotel since 2015.
In an official county email sent Tuesday, Sept. 23, to members of the county-appointed Tourist Development Council, Ocean Center staff member Sharon Angelastri informed its members that Berkley had resigned from the TDC to accept a new role with Hersha as a vice president of operations in Orlando, a job that involves oversight of 10 hotel properties.
Daytona Hilton's new owner 'a solid operator' that invests in properties
If Columbia Sussex does launch major renovations at the Hilton, it would fit the company’s pattern of upgrading hotels that it purchases, said Scott Smith, hospitality professor and director of graduate studies at the University of South Carolina.
“They are a solid operator,” said Smith, who once worked as director of convention services at the Daytona Marriott, the hotel that is now the Hilton.
“It’s a very good company at taking properties that aren’t fulfilling their potential and turning them around. They actually have a lot of history in Florida.”
The Daytona Beach Boardwalk runs behind the Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort in Daytona Beach. The 744-room hotel, the area's largest, is being sold to Columbia Sussex Corporation, a family-owned company from Kentucky with more than 50 years experience in the hospitality industry.
In Daytona Beach, the challenge will be attracting enough visitors to the destination to generate room rates and occupancy to justify the investment in the property, Smith said.
“Daytona Beach is not what we would call a primary destination,” he said. “It’s known as a value destination. The rub is going to be investing into it (the hotel) to bring it up to Hilton standards and then being able to get the rates year-round to justify the investment.”
On the plus side, the hotel also has factors working in its favor, most notably its prime location across from the convention center within a short stroll to the beach, Smith said.
“It also has really great meeting space, so even if your event not connected to Ocean Center, you can bring in groups that tend to pay higher rates over family vacation travelers,” he said. “That would be the strategy that I would look at, bringing in corporate meetings and booking them into the hotel year-round. If you do that, you’ve got a winner.”
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort, Volusia, Flagler's largest, sold. Who's the buyer?
