Rockpoint, Newbond Buy Hotel Maren Fort Lauderdale Beach for $47.1M
The deal extends a Rockpoint-Magna relationship struck a year ago in Tampa and comes with a $47.7M Apollo-affiliate loan attached.
Rockpoint and Newbond Holdings have bought the Hotel Maren Fort Lauderdale, a Curio Collection by Hilton, for $47.1 million from Magna Hospitality. The 141-room, 245,080-square-foot oceanfront property sits at 525 S. Fort Lauderdale Beach Blvd., just south of Las Olas Boulevard. Apollo affiliate Athene Annuity & Life Assurance Company supplied a $47.7 million loan on the acquisition.
Why it matters
Magna bought the hotel unfinished out of bankruptcy roughly eight years ago and completed construction before opening it as the Maren. Selling now at $47.1 million puts Magna’s exit about 20.5% above that basis, a real but not spectacular return for an eight-year hold on distressed beachfront land. For Rockpoint, the deal extends a relationship with Magna that started with the Westin Tampa Waterside in September 2025, a sign the two are becoming repeat counterparties on Florida hotel assets rather than one-off traders. Newbond Holdings, a newer name in South Florida hospitality, gets its first marquee beachfront asset alongside an established institutional partner.
The loan structure is also worth a beat. Athene, Apollo’s annuity insurer, financing more of the deal than the buyers paid in cash on paper (the loan exceeds the purchase price) points to how insurance-affiliated lenders are underwriting stabilized beachfront hospitality even as construction financing elsewhere in South Florida tightens.
The numbers
The $47.1 million price on 141 rooms works out to roughly $334,000 per key and about $192 per square foot across 245,080 square feet. Magna’s basis, per the reported bankruptcy-era purchase price of $39.1 million, means the sale nets an $8.0 million gain, a 20.5% increase, before accounting for the cost of finishing construction and eight years of carry. The $47.7 million Athene loan is $0.6 million above the sale price itself.
What’s next
Rockpoint and Newbond now control an operating, branded hotel rather than a development site, so the near-term work is asset management, not entitlements. Watch whether the pair adds a third Florida hotel with Magna as a seller, which would confirm a pattern rather than a coincidence, and whether other Fort Lauderdale Beach hospitality assets test similar per-key pricing as more owners weigh selling into a market still absorbing new beachfront supply. More South Florida coverage.