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Local investor Ben Mallah sells Orlando hotel near Universal Studios in $31M deal

Veronica Brezina

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The Four Points by Sheraton Orlando International Drive hotel. GoogleMaps.

Local real estate investor Ben Mallah has sold his Four Points by Sheraton Orlando International Drive hotel in a $31 million deal.

Mallah, who is a manager of Largo-based Equity Management Partners and owns multiple hotels and properties, told the St. Pete Catalyst he sold the hotel at 5905 International Drive for $31 million on Aug. 24.

The Sheraton hotel on I-Drive is widely recognized by its tall tower design with a globe on its roof.

Local investor Ben Mallah.

“It’s almost a miracle this hotel sold. We needed to stop the bleeding,” Mallah said, stating he has been losing roughly $1 million every month on the hotel due to the lack of activity caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I’m lucky to break even and get off this rollercoaster ride on I-Drive,” he said.

Mallah purchased the Sheraton Orlando International Drive in 2016 for roughly $23 million. He then funneled $6 million worth of improvements into the property.

Mallah couldn’t provide details on the buying entity and Orange County public records are not yet available on the sale of the property.

“There aren’t any flights coming in and the pandemic is getting worse. I don’t expect the market to change any time soon,” he said.

Mallah said not only did the pandemic cause the business activity to fall into a downward spiral–especially as Orlando largely attracts international visitors from Dubai and Brazil–but the growing and emerging competition of surrounding hotels have added more salt to the wound.

I-Drive is widely known for its large number of hotels and is home to the convention center and theme parks.

New York-based Berkadia Managing Director, Preston Reid, of the Tampa office and the Orlando office Managing Director, Michael Weinberg, represented Mallah on the property sale.

Mallah is also selling two hotels near Tampa International, including the 263-room Sheraton Suites Tampa Airport Westshore hotel and the 237-room Ramada Tampa Airport Westshore hotel, in addition to his Sheraton Suites Fort Lauderdale at Cypress Creek property.

Locally, Mallah owns the marina at John’s Pass. The marina includes Hooters, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., Hubbard’s Marina and The Friendly Fisherman.

Mallah recently purchased the Menna’s Landing condominium building in a $3.75 million deal, which is near the site of his planned hotel.

He said he is pushing forward on plans to develop a hotel in John’s Pass.

“John’s Pass is a completely different market, different tourists. There isn’t a tremendous amount of competition,” Mallah said.

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