One of the stellar hotel properties on the island of Hawaii, the Maui Prince Hotel has now reportedly been acquired by AREA Property Partners, a company that had been the hotel’s mortgage holders and has announced its plans of continuing the hotel operations, instead of relisting it for sale. To make the acquisition possible, AREA converted its $30 million worth of mortgage responsibility of the total $192 million into equity and will resume operations at the venue under the banner of Makena Beach and Golf Resort. Ths new venture will be supported by two new equity investors, Trinity Investments LLC and Stanford Carr Development LLC.
The Maui Prince hotel property is composed of a 310 room hotel, along with 18-hole golf courses and 1,300 acres for residential development. The most astounding angle of this acquisition is AREA’s decision of retaining the property, as under the current economic conditions, most of the foreclosing lenders tend to sell their investments off. The Maui Prince Hotel was foreclosed in the beginning of this year by a group of lenders including AREA. The foreclosure led to the rescinding of $228 million in mezzanine debt on the property and the $250 million in equity.
According to Bradford Wildauer (Partner, AREA),
“We will selectively invest [in the property] initially. We are looking to reposition it into a four-star hotel. It was a four-star at one point, and it slipped.â€
