Sirata Beach Resort in St. Pete Beach sells for $207 million

Jay Cridlin, Tampa Bay Times
·2 min read

The Sirata Beach Resort in St. Pete Beach has sold for $207 million to a Kentucky hospitality company, according to Pinellas County records.

The 382-room, 13-acre resort at 5300 Gulf Blvd. sold Thursday to Columbia Sussex, which owns hotels from Florida to Alaska, including the Marriott Tampa Westshore in Tampa and the Hilton Clearwater Beach Resort and Spa in Clearwater Beach.

The seller is Fort Worth, Texas’ Crescent Real Estate, which purchased the resort for $108.2 million in 2017. Crescent’s holdings include the Westshore Grand Hotel in Tampa.

The $207 million deal is the highest hotel sale on record with the Pinellas County clerk’s office, eclipsing 2018′s $188 million sale of the Vinoy Renaissance Resort and Golf Club in St. Petersburg and the $202.6 million sale of the Don CeSar resort in St. Pete Beach in 2017.

Before selling to Crescent, the Sirata was one of the last major locally owned hotels on the Pinellas beaches. St. Petersburg’s Nicklaus of Florida acquired what was then a much smaller property in the early 1960s, adding buildings and eventually merging two adjacent hotels, a Best Western and a Quality Inn, into what is now the Sirata.

Among the Sirata’s amenities are the poolside Harry’s Beach Bar, waterfront Rum Runners Bar and Grille and Compass Grille.

The Sirata deal is the largest in recent memory for a Pinellas beach hotel. In March, the Clearwater Beach Wyndham Grand sold for $170 million to a New York investment group. In July, the DoubleTree Beach Resort by Hilton Hotel Tampa Bay sold for $65.9 million. The Postcard Inn on the Beach ($83 million), Hotel Zamora ($34.7 million) and Thunderbird Resort ($32.5 million) have all also sold in the past year and a half.