Ireland Cos. Finalizes $75 Hotel Buy, Redevelopment

WESTON, FL-The Ireland Cos. of Miami has finalized its purchase of the 496-unit Bonaventure Resort & Spa here from Wyndham International Inc. of Dallas. Ireland also is redeveloping the resort, at a total purchase and redevelopment cost of approximately $75 million.The redevelopment has begun on the 22-year-old resort and is expected to take 18 months, with completion planned for spring 2006. Thomas K. Ireland, who heads the Ireland Cos., which developed the resort, says the company plans to spend more than $50 million on resort upgrades.In addition, the companies have recently signed an agreement for Wyndham to continue to manage the resort, which will operate as the Bonaventure Resort & Spa until next year. At that time, it will officially convert to the Wyndham brand after certain contractual obligations by the Ireland Cos. have been completed. Then, the property will be renamed the Wyndham Resort & Golden Door Spa at Weston.”We’re selling all non-strategic assets, and the property was identified as a non-strategic asset,” says Darcie M. Brossart of Wyndham International. “It’s non-strategic for us because we’ve identified various properties [that are in] secondary markets or a duplication of existing assets we have in specific markets.”

She notes that while “we would have sold it without having a Wyndham brand on it,” Ireland wished for the property to remain a Wyndham brand resort. Wyndham says it will use net proceeds from the resort sale to pay debt.