Starwood Capital Group and HI Partners announced they established a joint venture to invest $500 million in the Spanish hospitality market.
Starwood Capital Group, through an affiliate of Starwood Global Opportunity Fund X, will own 70 percent of the joint venture, while HI Partners will own the remaining 30 percent. HI Partners, which is majority owned by Banc Sabadell, the fifth-largest banking group in Spain, will serve as the manager of the venture, which will focus on 3- and 4-Star leisure hotels with more than 200 rooms in Spain’s primary tourist destinations including the Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Costa del Sol, Costa Dorada, and Costa Brava. The group will also consider special investment projects in high-quality urban hotels in Barcelona and Madrid.
“We view the Spanish hotel market as extremely attractive due to its positive fundamentals, strong demand from both national and international guests, and the steady recovery of the broader economy,” says Keith Evans, vice president at Starwood Capital Group. “We look forward to building a high-quality portfolio of hotels representing the top resort and urban destinations in Spain.”
The joint venture highlights Starwood Capital Group’s growing presence in Spain. In June 2015, Starwood Capital Group and Meliá Hotels International completed a joint venture to acquire a collection of hotels across key resort locations in Spain—the initial portfolio included seven beachfront hotels comprising 2,933 keys. Together, the two joint ventures with HI Partners and Meliá Hotels will provide Starwood Capital with full market coverage and local expertise in Spain.
Starwood Capital Group has acquired more than $77 billion of real estate assets globally since its inception in 1991, including approximately 2,600 hotels and resorts.
