In the latest sign of investors' confidence in the strength of the Miami-area hospitality industry, the owners of the Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood, Florida, have scored more than half a billion dollars in financing to help pay existing debt and a portion of a planned renovation.

Trinity Investments and UBS secured a $575 million floating rate loan from Citi and Deutsche Bank for the property at 3555 S. Ocean Drive managed by Hilton Hotel and Resorts and part of the company’s Curio Collection. The interest-only loan included mezzanine financing from Ohana Real Estate Investors and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board.

JLL's Hotels & Hospitality team represented the borrowers — a joint venture between Trinity and UBS — in the transaction. The team was also involved when the 1,000-room hotel sold for a record $835 million last year, representing the third-largest single-asset hotel deal ever sold in the country at the time.

The joint venture owners are converting the hotel from a Curio Collection to a Signia by Hilton. More details on the conversion and timeline were not disclosed.

Kevin Davis, CEO of JLL's Hotels & Hospitality's Americas, said in a statement the hotel is expected to see “outsized performance” thanks to the planned renovation and “the ongoing strength of the South Florida lodging market."

The Diplomat Beach Resort originally opened in 1958 in Broward County, billing itself as the only hotel between Miami and Fort Lauderdale for a time. The twin-spired 36-story hotel underwent a $90 million renovation in 2018. The property features 200,000 square feet of meeting and event space, six restaurants and bars, a 15,000-square-foot spa and 10 acres of Atlantic Ocean beachfront access.

South Florida hotel performance remains robust as it benefits from an increase in leisure travel, recovery of group demand and a significant demographic shift into South Florida.

The refinancing is the latest sign of investor confidence in the South Florida hospitality market. Earlier this year, locally based hospitality investment firm Gencom retook ownership of the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne for $400 million in a deal that made up nearly 90% of the total sales volume in Miami in the first quarter. The company is planning a $100 million renovation of the island hotel.

JLL's Hotels & Hospitality team led by Davis and Mike Huth represented the borrowers in the refinancing of the Diplomat Beach Resort. The mezzanine loan structuring was led by Ohana Real Estate Investors' Franco Famularo and Eddie Yu.