It was a big week for hotel deals in South Florida as nearly $1B changed hands in hospitality trades.

SALES

Hospitality giant MCR has acquired the Hilton Miami Airport Blue Lagoon from Virginia-based hotel REIT Park Hotels & Resorts, it announced last week.

MCR spent $118.3M for the 508-room property at 5101 Blue Lagoon Drive, which works out to roughly $233K per key, The Real Deal reports. The 14-story hotel, nestled in Miami’s Waterford Business District and was built 1983, includes a 32K SF conference ballroom.

This is MCR’s second acquisition in the last two months of a hotel located next to Miami International Airport. In December, the company announced the purchase of the Hyatt Place Miami Airport East for $16.6M. MCR says it is the fourth-largest hotel owner-operator in the country, with a $5B portfolio that spans more than 21,000 rooms across 37 states and 102 cities.

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Hawaiian real estate investment firm Trinity Fund Advisors and Credit Suisse Asset Management formed a joint venture to acquire the Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood for $835M, the largest U.S. hotel sale in more than three years. Brookfield Asset Management sold the 1,000-room property after spending $90M on major renovations.

Hilton Worldwide will manage the property, which includes 200K SF of conference and meeting room space. It's the largest hotel transaction in the country since Michael Dell's MSD Partners purchased The Boca Raton Hotel for $1B in 2019, fThe Wall Street Journal reported.

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BH Group, Pebb Enterprises, Florida Value Partners and John Buck Co. acquired a 1.03-acre site at 533 Northwest Second Ave. near the Brightline train station in Overtown, the South Florida Business Journal reports.

The sellers, BH Group and Meyers Group, sold the site for $40M in a deal brokered by Berkadia. The land last traded back in 2016 for $4.3M. Documents filed back in 2020 show that Related Group had the site under contract but never closed the deal, according to the SFBJ.

The land has entitlements for a project dubbed Miami Station, a 40-story mixed-use building slated to offer 244K SF of office space, 301 apartments and 7K SF of retail space in addition to a 450-space parking lot.

This is John Buck Co's. first deal in South Florida. The firm says it has developed over $7B in real estate in cities like Chicago, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Abu Dhabi.

LEASES

Kroger is opening a new "spoke" grocery delivery center near Miami. The country's largest supermarket operator, Kroger signed a deal for a 60K SF delivery center to be run by e-commerce partner Ocado in Opa-Locka, Winsight Grocery Business reports.

The facility will operate in tandem with Kroger’s 375K SF fulfillment center in Groveland, which it acquired with Ocado back in 2021. The new center is Kroger's first in South Florida, although it still doesn't operate any supermarkets.

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

Real estate services firm The Keyes Co. acquired a brokerage rival in Mizner Grande. As part of the deal, Mizner Grande will merge with the Keyes' office located in Boca Raton at 21065 Powerline Road, according to a press release.

The Keyes Co. continued its acquisition spree after recently buying Novus Realty in Miramar and Skye Louis Realty based in Coral Springs, the South Florida Business Journal reports.

Miami-based Keyes employs 3,600 agents within the 58 offices in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Volusia and Lee counties. In 2022, the company was credited with closing over $10B in real estate sales and services. Mizner Grande arranged over $150M in sales last year and focuses on luxury real estate products.