Source (www.thebeachtimes.com) By Staff Beach Times
Florida Ice and Farm Company, Costa Rica’s brewing and real estate giant, has unloaded its stake in the Hotel Paradisus Playa Conchal, one of Guancaste’s most prestigious all-inclusive resorts.Reserva Conchal, the parent company of the 930-hectare (2,297 acres) real-estate development project of the same name, in Cabo Velas, has sold a 90 per cent stake in the 302-room hotel to Caribbean Property Group, a US investment fund.The deal is worth $135 million.Under the arrangement, Florida Ice and Farm Company (FIFCO) retains a ten per cent interest in the hotel, which carries the Meliá brand.“The reason we did this is because we are not hotel operators or owners,” said Carlos Francisco Echeverriá, head of public affairs for FIFCO, late this week.“We wanted to keep a minimum ownership only in as much as it is closely related to our real estate business,” Mr Echeverriá said.FIFCO also retains the Garra de Leon Golf Course, as well as the remaining 700 hectares outside the hotel.The deal has been several years in the making.It began to move when FIFCO acquired three key Costa Rican assets of SAB Miller, one of the world’s biggest brewers with brewing interests or distribution agreements in more than 60 countries across six continents.Specifically, FIFCO wanted the Central American bottler, Embotelladora Centroamericana S.A. (ECSA), the drinks distributor, Distribuidora Centroamericana de Bebidas S.A., and critically, SAB Miller’s 42.5 per cent interest in Reserva Conchal.That gave FIFCO an 85 per cent interest in the Cabo Velas property.“As the controller of Reserva Conchal, we decided to sell our majority shareholding in the hotel business,” said Mr Echeverriá. “We formed a new company and now own just ten per cent, while CPG owns 90 per cent.”The Caribbean Property Group manages the Caribbean Real Estate Opportunity Fund 2005, an investment fund of private capital of $500 million. It is sponsored by Goldman Sachs and includes Perry Capital and about 15 other, smaller investors.According to Jorge Volio, the Chief Executive Officer of Volio Capital, since January 2006 CPG has embarked upon an aggressive acquisition campaign. “They raised a fund from sophisticated, US investors, of about $500 million which gives them the opportunity to leverage the capital across about $2 billion in assets,” said Mr Volio.“The purpose of the fund is to acquire ongoing concerns with cash flows already happening.”Volio Capital represents CPG in Central America, and Mr Volio negotiated the latest deal.CPG has concentrated on four types of acquisitions --- hotels and other assets in the hospitality industry, office buildings, commercial and retail properties, plus industrial facilities.In Costa Rica they have acquired the Fiesta Premier Hotels in Papagayo and Puntarenas. In a deal with the Hilton Hotels Corporation, those properties have been re-branded a Hilton Hotel and a Doubletree by Hilton.In Costa Rica, the investments of CPG include the industrial free zone of Global Park, plus the Court Marriott Hotel in San José. The group also owns hotels in the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago and Aruba.Mr Volio said there were no plans to alter the operations of the Hotel Paradisus Playa Conchal.“There are no plans to re-brand the property,” Mr Volio said. “The Melia is a successful hotel, it is profitable, and we would not have done this if it were not.”Both sides in the negotiation say they expect the deal to be finalized when due diligence is complete, probably within about 60 days.Reserva Conchal is one of the foremost tourist developments on the Pacific Coast.It started with Paradisus Playa Conchal, the Melia-operated, five-star, 400-plus-room, hotel, finished July of 1996, and was followed a year later with the opening of the 18-hold Garra de León golf course.Under the 15-year Master Plan, the property will eventually be divided up into three main areas.A second resort is to be built, as well as another golf course, and an equestrian center. Plans call for more than 700 lots to be released containing a mixture of condominiums, duplexes, single dwelling houses, villas and in some cases, building lots.The group also plans to develop Los Altos, a small outcrop of land overlooking Playa Conchal from the south. Here will be a six-star, 70-room, boutique hotel, high-priced condominiums, duplexes and villas all overlooking an isolated beach whose only access will be by boat.Reserva Conchal is known to be in active negotiations to begin building the second resort, to take advantage of the lack of all-inclusive accommodation along the coast. Management will not be drawn on how that hotel project might be developed.One possibility, given the recent deal over the Paradisus Playa Conchal, would be to simply sell property, allow other developers to build the hotel and use the facility to draw buyers for their real estate.
Posted by Roger Vlasos
Broker/Owner
Century21 At the Beach
Playas del Coco, Guanacaste
Website: www.century21incostarica.com
Website: www.northpacificproperties.com
Email: roger@century21incostarica.com
