The 104-room Miami Beach hotels for sale the Raleigh is expected to have a new owner soon. The Miami commercial property is located at 18th Street and Collins Avenue in Miami Beach.
Andre Balazs the hotelier behind The Standard hotel chain said he has a buyer for the 104 room Raleigh and that both sides have agreed to a price. The Miami commercial property deal is expected to be official within four weeks.
Andre Balazs said of his seven years with the Raleigh, 1775 Collins Avenue and a favorite stop for celebrities and local hipsters,``We've accomplished what we wanted to and now we're focusing on The Standard brand-positioning.''
Balazs owns hotels in both New York and Los Angeles and says he typically sells a hotel six or seven years after opening.
Luigi Mercurio, who specializes in hotel sales for EWM, a local real estate brokerage company says, ``It's the right time to buy a hotel and as always, when it's the best time to buy, it's the worst time to sell.''
But Balazs said he thinks this a relatively good time to cash out and expects Miami commercial properties values to drop more as the market worsens.
Balazs, in a telephone interview said, ``I think it's probably a fortuitous time, based on what's happening in Miami.''
Citing the glut of unsold Miami condos and Miami condo-hotel units ``If you look at what's happening up and down the beach, I think it's going to be rough''.
Speaking of the pricey boutique hotels like the Raleigh, he noted ``that's the end of the market that's really crowded.''
Balazs said the money from the sale of The Raleigh will go to expand The Standard chain.
``We're moving quite aggressively overseas and in the Caribbean,'' he said. ``This is a very good time for us.''
Last year The Standard in Miami Beach was sold to a Spanish company for $34 million after paying $9 million for the site of the old Lido Spa on the Venetian Causeway.
His company now leases back the Miami waterfront property and runs the hotel.
He said he is not pursuing a similar arrangement at the Raleigh, which his company bought for $25 million in 2002.
Contributed by MLR Realty
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