Hamilton Island comes complete with its own airstrip (Image: Ray White)
US fund management titan Blackstone announced on Tuesday that it has agreed to buy an island resort in the Great Barrier Reef, for a price reported by local media to be approximately A$1.2 billion ($804 million), in its latest bet on Australia’s leisure sector.
Blackstone is buying Hamilton Island, along with its marina, commercial airport and 18-hole golf course on neighbouring Dent Island, from the Oatley family, as its latest in a string of hospitality investments in Asia Pacific.
“Hamilton Island is an exceptional destination, and we are honored to build on the vision and dedication that the Oatley family has brought to investing in its transformation and add a standout asset to our portfolio,” Blackstone Asia Pacific chairman and head of Asia real estate Chris Heady said in a statement. “Hospitality and leisure is a key investment theme at Blackstone globally including in the Asia Pacific region, where we’ve brought scale and operational expertise to invest in and build leading brands.”
Blackstone announced its deal to acquire the resort island three years after it completed its $6.3 billion purchase of Australian casino operator Crown Resorts. The company has also made major bets on hotels in Japan and India as it increasingly turns to real estate strategies with more operational elements in search of higher yields.
Two-Year Sale Effort Nears End
While the Hamilton Island nvestment remains subject to regulatory approvals, the deal is designed to give Blackstone ownership of 2,800 acres (1,133 hectares) across two of the Whitsunday Islands, around 12 kilometers (8 miles) off the Queensland coast.
Blackstone’s Chris Heady has signed another hospitality deal
The resort has five hotels, more than 20 restaurants and bars, along with 20 retail stores, with 70 percent of the property included in the purchase still undeveloped. Hamilton Island’s airport, which is served by flights from Sydney and Melbourne, is the only commercial aviation facility in the Great Barrier Reef.
Local press reports in early October had noted Blackstone’s interest in Hamilton Island, with the Oatley family having been reported to be marketing the resort at A$1 billion more than two years ago. The clan says it has spent more than A$350 million improving the resort since buying the property in 2003.
The Great Barrier Reef, where the tropical resort is located, is a World Heritage-listed site which attracted more than 2.3 billion visitors last year, according to government figures.
Happy for Hotels
Blackstone’s acquisition of Crown Resorts in 2022 gave it control of Australia’s biggest casino owner, operating gaming hotels in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.
The company also bet on hospitality in Japan this year when it agreed to pay JPY 14 billion ($89.3 million) to purchase the Bespoke Hotel Shinsaibashi in Osaka’s Chuo ward to add to its existing $1.3 billion hospitality portfolio in the country.
In December of last year Blackstone announced a deal which gave it a pair of resorts in Japan’s southern island of Okinawa for JPY 20 billion. Later that same month the company agreed to buy a budget hotel in Osaka for an undisclosed sum.
The world’s largest real estate fund manager has also invested in hotels in India, teaming with local builder Panchshil Realty to assemble a 2,036-key set of hotels across India and the Maldives which became the portfolio for IPOs on the Bombay and National stock exchanges last year which raised INR 16 billion ($190 million).
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