Hawaii’s Fairmont Orchid Hotel Sold to Korean Investor for $200.3M

By Adriana Pop, Associate Editor

Korea-based Mirae Asset, one of Asia’s largest independent financial services firms, has acquired the Fairmont Orchid hotel on Hawaii’s Big Island.

According to the Pacific Business News, Oaktree Capital Management LP and an affiliate of Woodbridge Capital Partners LLC sold the oceanfront property for $200.3 million.

Seoul’s Mirae Asset formed Maps Orchid Hotel LLC to close on the purchase, which marks one of the first major hotel acquisitions by a Korean firm in Hawaii.

Located in Waikoloa on 32.6 acres along the Kohala Coast, the 538-key luxury resort offers a variety of activities and services, such as canoe paddling, lei making by the ocean, botanical tours, “turtle talk” sessions and archeological hikes. Other amenities include a Hawaiian-style day spa that extends to a full salon and a 24-hour fitness center with a 10,000-square-foot oceanfront swimming pool and world-class tennis courts. Guests also have access to a 36-hole golf course, memorable wedding space, great shopping and the Keiki Aloha Children’s Program.

A company executive for the buyer told the newspaper that Mirae Asset decided to purchase the property in anticipation of an increased number of visitors from China.

Oaktree Capital Management LP and its partner bought the hotel in 2011. Earlier in 2009, Westbrook Partners, which had acquired the property for $250 million from Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Inc. in 2005, turned it over to lender Barclays Capital through a deed in lieu of foreclosure.

Oaktree Capital Management also owned the Turtle Bay Resort until it was taken over by a consortium of lenders through a deed in lieu of foreclosure in February 2010.

Photo credit: www.fairmont.com