ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Margaritaville Enterprises LLC (“Margaritaville”) today announced it has partnered with Boston-based private equity real estate firm Rockpoint, through a common equity investment by affiliates of Rockpoint in the company, as part of a recapitalization of certain minority investors. The strategic partnership aligns Margaritaville’s asset-light, lifestyle brand platform with Rockpoint’s fundamental value investment approach, and is expected to further drive the growth of the Margaritaville platform.
Tom Gilbane, Managing Member at Rockpoint, commented: “The Margaritaville team has built a tremendous business, creating an established brand that provides significant value to asset owners through its strong top-line performance and unique, differentiated customer experience. We believe Margaritaville is poised to capitalize on demographic and secular trends, and we look forward to helping them continue to grow the platform. We are very excited about our strategic partnership.”
“We are thrilled to partner with Rockpoint, among the largest real estate fund managers in North America, as we provide more opportunities for our consumers to have fun and relax in Margaritaville. Partnering with thoughtful real estate capital will enable us to continue to demonstrate the power of our brand and its value proposition to our asset partners,” said John Cohlan, CEO of Margaritaville. “Together with Rockpoint, we look forward to growing with our high-quality institutional partners that have already invested or committed to invest over $7.5 billion to date across our hospitality real estate projects.”
Lazard Frères & Co. acted as exclusive financial advisor, and King & Spalding LLP and Greenberg Traurig, LLP acted as legal advisors to Margaritaville. BofA Securities acted as financial advisor, and Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher LLP acted as legal advisor to Rockpoint.
About Margaritaville:
Margaritaville Enterprises LLC (“Margaritaville”), a state of mind since 1977, is a global lifestyle brand inspired by Jimmy Buffett, whose songs evoke a passion for tropical escape and relaxation. Margaritaville features over 25 lodging locations and over 20 additional projects in the pipeline positioned across a variety of full-service and boutique hotel brands, branded for-sale real estate, premium RV destinations, and gaming properties, all complemented by an extensive suite of food and beverage concepts across more than 60 stand-alone and integrated F&B venues.
The hotel brands include Margaritaville Hotels & Resorts, Compass by Margaritaville, Margaritaville Beach House, Margaritaville St. Somewhere, and the all-inclusive product Margaritaville Island Reserve Resorts. Branded real estate includes its “55 and better” active adult brand Latitude Margaritaville, Margaritaville Cottages, Villas and Residences, One Particular Harbour Margaritaville, and Margaritaville Vacation Club by Wyndham. The brand further expanded with last year’s launch of Camp Margaritaville for its luxury RV destinations. In addition, this month the brand will launch Margaritaville at Sea to support its first cruise ship. The brand has attracted a large roster of high-quality institutional partners, including Pebblebrook, Diamondrock, Apollo, Brookfield, IMC, Minto, St. Joe Company, Sycamore, Davidson, Karisma Hotels & Resorts, Aimbridge, Benchmark, Encore, Safe Harbor Development, Songy Highroads, Driftwood Hospitality, Forge Hotel Partners, SOHO Properties, JEMB Realty, Wyndham Destinations, and Berkshire Hathaway (via its Forest River and Clayton Homes subsidiaries), among others.
More than 20 million travelers every year change their latitude and attitude with a visit to a Margaritaville location. Consumers can also escape every day through a collection of Margaritaville lifestyle products including apparel, footwear, frozen concoction makers, home décor, a satellite radio station and more. For more information, visit www.margaritaville.com.
MARGARITAVILLE, COMPASS, ST. SOMEWHERE, LATITUDE MARGARITAVILLE, ONE PARTICULAR HARBOUR and related trademarks are the property of Margaritaville Enterprises, LLC. The names and trademarks of third-party companies are the property of their respective owners.
About Rockpoint:
Rockpoint is a real estate private equity firm headquartered in Boston with additional domestic offices in San Francisco and Dallas. Rockpoint employs a fundamental value approach to investing and targets select product types located in major markets in the United States. Rockpoint utilizes a consistent strategy across distinct return profiles through its opportunistic and growth and income investment programs. Rockpoint targets assets with intrinsic long-term value, at attractive prices relative to stabilized cash flows, and with particular emphasis on value creation opportunities and complex situations. Since 1994, Rockpoint’s co-founders with others have sponsored 19 investment vehicles and related co-investment vehicles through Rockpoint and a predecessor firm and have raised approximately $29 billion in capital commitments. As of December 31, 2021, Rockpoint’s investment team with others has invested or committed to invest in 469 transactions with a total peak capitalization of approximately $72 billion (inclusive of fund equity, co-investor equity and debt). To learn more about Rockpoint, visit www.rockpoint.com.
