Crescent, which had increased its ownership in the property in late 2002, had decided to dispose of the resort to focus more on its core business of office properties, according to a company statement. "The strategic plan that we've been articulating to the market has been to selectively increase the size of our core business of owning and managing high-quality office properties and, over time, to decrease our non-core holdings," John C. Goff, vice chairman and CEO of Crescent, says in the statement. "We saw an opportunity to sell (the) Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach at what we believe is an attractive price and decided, collectively with Westbrook, to sell the resort. This transaction allows us to free up capital for office investment."

The buyer was a private investor, whose name or location was not disclosed, according to a spokesperson for Crescent.

In 1997, through an affiliate, Crescent acquired a 25% interest in the property. After several transactions in late 2002, Crescent increased its interest in the resort to 50%. The net proceeds from the sale to Crescent were $19 million. As of Sept. 30, Crescent had $15.5 million invested in the property.