Adam's Mark to become Hyatt

[TonVille]

Thats what they get for not building Bucky Clarkson's 22 story, 400 Marriott Hotel next to the convention center. I know he's saying, "I told you so, I told you so." I was looking forward to that building to our skyline more than the Adam's Mark.

[Urban_Legend]

I think Jax needs the hotel rooms more than the condos. We have a decent amount of residential towers popping up, and most of them are on the water. I'd rather see more residential away from the river, in the core.

[RiversideGator]

From today's Jacksonville Daily Record:

Changes at the Adams

[vicupstate]

There is a press conference scheduled for tomorrow (Thursday) by Peyton and Hyatt officials.

[bobliocatt]

I heard they plan to spend $10 million in renovations. That's a lot of money considering this hotel isn't even 5 years old yet.

[Urban_Legend]

That's what I was thinking. $10 Mill?

[RiversideGator]

Well, they will probably want to update the furnishings in the rooms and put new signs on the exterior. Hopefully they will update some of the lobby too, which I never care for. We will see. I think this is exciting news.

[Captain Obvious]

Hotels are expensive to furnish.

For example, that new Ritz Carleton resort south of Orlando cost several hundred million dollars to furnish. Not to build. To furnish. I think they spent several million on silverwear and stemwear alone.

[asonj23]

Just an update...

Former Adam's Mark To Get Interior Facelift

New owners will spend $10 million to upgrade hotel

By CHRISTOPHER CALNAN, The Times-Union

The new owners of the former Adam's Mark hotel said they'll spend $10 million in the coming year to upgrade the hotel's lobby, restaurants, bathrooms and guest room bedding.

But Oxford Lodging Advisory & Investment Group LLC, which bought the 4-year-old downtown property with Longwing Real Estate Ventures LLC, declined to reveal the purchase price Thursday after formally announcing the deal during a news conference with Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton.

Fred Kummer, president of St. Louis-based HBE Corp., the owner of Adam's Mark, also declined to reveal the sale price of the 966-room hotel, the city's largest.

Workers spent Thursday removing red Adam's Mark logos from the 19-story building that has been bought and renamed the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront.

DON BURK/The Times-Union

Peyton said no public money was used as an incentive in the deal.

The hotel is renamed the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront. Workers spent Thursday removing red Adam's Mark logos from the 19-story building. The interior renovation project has already started, said Andrew Strasser, executive vice president and principal of Oxford Lodging.

"We're going to reconcept it and make it more exciting," he said. "We'll update the restaurants and enhance things so that they're fun and people in the community would want to come here and enjoy it."

Strasser said there are no plans to convert any of the hotel floors to condominiums, and he disagreed with industry experts who said it is too big for Jacksonville.

Oxford Lodging, which is based in San Francisco, became interested in the Adam's Mark 18 months ago and didn't give up even when a proposal by Marriott International Inc. to buy the property fell through in July, Strasser said.

"We just kept our eye on it and when the deal didn't happen, we restarted conversations with the owner," he said.

(Marriott and a private investment group had offered to buy the property for $97.1 million if they received an $8 million loan from the city.)

Oxford Lodging is doing the Adam's Mark deal with the help of New York-based Longwing, a deep-pocketed group that's a division of the Dubai Investment Group, an affiliate of Dubai Holding LLC, based in the United Arab Emirates.

Last week, Dubai Investment partnered with a New York firm to buy a 21,000-apartment portfolio, creating one of the largest residential property ownerships in the United States, the Business Wire news service reported.

Such arrangements between a group that specializes in the hospitality industry and a wealthy investment group are beneficial to everyone involved, said Jack Corgel, professor of real estate at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration.

"In many ways it's good news for the community," he said. "There's no shortage of money there to make this property whatever they want it to be. It's better to have a rich owner than a poor owner."

Longwing has a financial interest in other properties in Northeast Florida. The group is part owner of a long-term health-care facility on Dunn Avenue and one in Macclenny, Longwing Principal Simon Gluck said.

Dubai Investment began investing in the U.S. real estate market in 2003 through Longwing. That same year, Longwing teamed up with an Atlanta-based owner of hospitals and assisted living facilities to buy 19 skilled nursing facilities in Florida for $86 million, according to the Business Wire.

HBE opened the Adam's Mark in 2001. It was the NFL's headquarters for Super Bowl XXXIX.

After the Marriott deal fell through, Kummer said he never intended to sell the property, but Marriott's offer was too good to dismiss.

Kummer has sold most of his 24 hotels so he can concentrate on his core business of building hospitals. A year ago, he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he planned to sell all his hotels except five: Denver, Dallas, Buffalo, St. Louis and Jacksonville.

The Jacksonville Adam's Mark was initially expected to cost $120 million to build. However, city records indicate its owners had invested $130.6 million in the property as of Dec. 31, 2003.

christopher.calnanjacksonville.com, (904) 359-4404

[Urban_Legend]

I love the Hyatt logo! I can't wait for the new signs to go up.