BOSTON – Henley Investments, a private equity real estate firm based in the UK and the U.S., has announced the acquisition of their fourth boutique hotel in Miami in partnership with Life House, a hotel management company. The largest U.S. hotel acquisition to-date by Henley with a total project capitalization in excess of $40 million (including acquisition and renovation cost), this deal signals Life House’s expansion into managing bigger hotels.
Life House will initially operate the hotel, maintaining the property’s historic branding as the Lord Balfour Hotel before executing a comprehensive renovation that will see the hotel rebranded as Life House Ocean Drive alongside updates to all rooms, suites, and public spaces, as well as the buildout of a fitness center and yoga studio.
“We’re proud to offer a growing diversity of unique, locally-rooted options to travelers to Miami in partnership with Life House,” added Garrett Solomon, Henley’s chief investment officer for the company’s North American operations. Life House Ocean Drive will join Henley’s current line of lifestyle hotels in Miami, including 33-key Life House Little Havana and 50-key Life House Mid Beach.
In live projects, Life House has proven its ability to leverage this proprietary technology to materially decrease operating expenses and drive strong incremental revenue, yielding a 30-50 percent higher return on hotel investments for their real estate partners than incumbent operators.
During its first year of operation, Life House has signed over 500 rooms across 10 hotels and will be opening a new hotel every month for the next six months. “We’re proud to have judiciously built a robust asset-light, software-driven platform in less than 18 months and with only $10M of venture backing” said Rami Zeidan, Founder & CEO of Life House.
