MIAMI—LaPlaya Beach Resort, a 189-key luxury boutique resort on the Gulf of Mexico in Naples, FL, has traded hands. The sale price: $185.5 million.

Daniel C. Peek, HFF senior managing director and head of the firm's hotel group, managing director Max Comess, director Chris Drew, and real estate analysts Alexandra Lalos and Maxx Carney represented the seller, a partnership between affiliates of Halstatt and Noble House Hotels & Resorts, Ltd. Pebblebrook Hotel Trust purchased the hotel free and clear of debt. Noble will continue to manage LaPlaya under a new operating agreement.

“The purchase and sale of LaPlaya is significant and underlines the continued strong recovery of the resort sector nationwide and the broad institutional appeal of this segment,” says Peek. “There has never been greater demand for this asset class in the global real estate capital markets than today.”