Columbia Sussex Corporation, based in Crestview Hills, Kentucky, is slated to become the new owner of the Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort, according to multiple sources in the area’s hospitality industry that include longtime Daytona Beach-area hotelier Manoj Bhoola, president and CEO of Ormond Beach-based Elite Hospitality, Inc.
It marks the beginning of a new chapter in the long, occasionally bumpy history of the 744-room beachside hotel, the area’s largest.
The Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort is a key fixture in the destination’s core beachside tourist district, where it sits across Atlantic Avenue from the county-run Ocean Center convention complex a short stroll from the beach.
Here’s a look back at key moments in the hotel’s history:
1989 — The beachfront hotel that eventually became the Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort originally opens to guests as the $47 million Daytona Marriott on Jan. 12, according to media reports.
The 402-room hotel is hailed as a centerpiece of a renaissance for beachside Daytona Beach, with its marble lobby, pink-and-turquoise trim, gourmet restaurants and indoor-outdoor pool. The hotel’s owner is Pawnee-Daytona Beach Hotel Venture, a Florida general partnership that included David McGrath, a Daytona Beach real estate executive; investors Bob and Rich Martin of Daytona Beach; and Sal Leccese of Orlando.
1994 — When Marriott defaulted on its bank loan in 1994, Adam’s Mark buys the asset for $20.6 million or $51,244 per room, according to Volusia County property records.
1999 — Adam’s Mark owners break ground on a $45 million, 11-story tower wing with 306 rooms to be completed a year later. The addition lifts total room inventory to 744.
Also added during the expansion: 35,000 square feet of meeting space, including an 18,000-square-foot ballroom.
2000 — Facing damage to its reputation and its bottom line, the Adam’s Mark hotel chain agrees to pay settlements in racial discrimination lawsuits that included a Justice Department’s settlement of approximately $5.9 million ($4.4 million for guests and $1.5 million for scholarships) and the NAACP-related settlement in late 2001 totaling more than $1.1 million for guests and colleges, plus attorney fees.
The lawsuits stemmed from the 1999 edition of the then-annual Black College Reunion event in Daytona Beach.
Legal experts call it the largest, most comprehensive discrimination case involving a hotel company, comparing it with the Denny’s restaurant chain settlement in 1994 as evidence of how costly discrimination in the hospitality business can be.
2003 — Pyramid Advisors LLC, a Boston-based hotel management and advisory firm, and Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund of New York buy the hotel in December from the St. Louis-based parent of Adam’s Mark for $54.1 million, according to Volusia County property records.
The new owners pledge to focus on renovations to the 436-room South Tower component of the hotel.
2004 — The Adam’s Mark closes in the wake of damages from four successive hurricanes that ravaged Central Florida in 2004.
2005 — The hotel reopens as the Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort.
2007 — General Electric buys the 744-room hotel for $142 million.
2013 — A consensual foreclosure agreement is finalized to shift full ownership control of the hotel to U.S. Bank, the trustee representing lenders. General Electric loses its ownership through the foreclosure action that had been in the works since the end of 2011.
2015 — Greenwich, Connecticut-based Starwood Capital Group, a company that owns hotels nationwide, buys the Hilton for $92.25 million, according to Volusia County property records.
2017 — With the highly anticipated International Shriners convention looming, the Hilton completes a $25 million renovation that includes extensive enhancements to the main entrance, lobby, dining and entertainment venues, pools and beachside cabanas, and meeting spaces.
2025 — Columbia Sussex Corporation, based in Crestview Hills, Kentucky, is slated to become the hotel’s new owner, according to multiple sources in the Daytona Beach hotel and hospitality industry. The company plans to make significant investments into renovating the hotel, which is anticipated to remain a Hilton property, according to sources with knowledge of the transition.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort sale is latest chapter in long, eventful history
Reporting by Jim Abbott, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
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