Ryman's $1.38 Billion Orlando Buy Adds Luxury, Meetings Scale

Ryman Hospitality Properties agreed to buy Grande Lakes Orlando Resort for $1.38 billion, adding a Ritz-Carlton and a JW Marriott to its convention-resort portfolio in the top U.S. meetings market.

Ryman Hospitality Properties agreed to acquire the fee simple interest in Grande Lakes Orlando Resort for $1.38 billion, a 12.5x EBITDAre deal that brings a Ritz-Carlton and a JW Marriott into its convention-center resort portfolio in the nation's largest meetings market.

"Grande Lakes is a terrific asset and one that fits all of our ownership criteria," Mark Fioravanti, president and chief executive officer at Ryman Hospitality Properties, said. "The transaction strengthens our JW Marriott and Gaylord Hotels customer rotation strategies, expands our presence in the nation's top meetings market and creates the opportunity for meaningful portfolio synergies."

The 409-acre complex includes a 1,010-room JW Marriott, a 582-room Ritz-Carlton and a Greg Norman-designed 18-hole golf course, totaling 1,592 guest rooms and about 320,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting and event space. The purchase price equals 12.5x the property's trailing-twelve-month Adjusted EBITDAre of $110.0 million through June 30, 2026, and the resort has received roughly $150 million in recent capital investment across guestrooms, meeting areas and public spaces. Marriott International will continue operating both hotels under the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton brands.

The deal, expected to close in the third quarter of 2026 subject to customary conditions, is projected to be accretive to adjusted funds from operations per diluted share in 2027. Ryman, a lodging real estate investment trust with a market capitalization of about $8.4 billion, runs five Gaylord convention hotels plus JW Marriott resorts in Phoenix and San Antonio, a portfolio of 12,364 rooms and more than 3 million square feet of meeting space managed by Marriott.

A $510 Million Turn for Trinity

The sale hands Trinity Investments a substantial gain on its 2018 entry. The Miami-based hospitality investor, backed by Elliott Investment Management, acquired Grande Lakes in December 2018 for $870 million, putting the $1.38 billion exit roughly $510 million above its purchase price. Trinity's hold period also captured the resort's post-pandemic recovery in group travel, a segment Ryman is betting will keep Orlando, ranked the top North American meetings destination by Cvent, busy year-round.

For Ryman, the acquisition deepens a strategy of rotating guests across its JW Marriott-branded properties and introduces Ritz-Carlton as a new luxury flag in its portfolio. Orlando International Airport, the seventh-busiest U.S. airport by passenger volume, underpins both group and leisure demand at the property, which also features a 40,000-square-foot Ritz-Carlton spa and a waterpark.

Execution Risk in a Priced Deal

The 12.5x multiple sits above the roughly 10x-11x range typical of recent large U.S. resort transactions, leaving little margin for integration missteps. Ryman flagged concentration exposure to Marriott-branded hotels and the possibility of undiscovered liabilities at Grande Lakes as risks, while the financing mechanics — including whether new equity will be issued — were not disclosed. The company's two prior acquisition announcements this year, for JW Marriott Phoenix and a resort closing in June, both preceded modest share declines within 24 hours, a pattern investors may weigh against the deal's 2027 accretion target.

BofA Securities and J.P. Morgan advised Ryman on the transaction, with Bass, Berry & Sims PLC and Greenberg Traurig LLP as legal counsel. Trinity's financial and legal advisers were not disclosed.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.