Bradenton Days Inn near Interstate 75 sells for $3.05 million

BRADENTON -- For the third time in a year, a hotel property in the Travelers Oasis subdivision has sold in a deal that coincided with the tourist season.

A 60-room Days Inn at 644 67th St. Circle E. changed hands in a $3.05 million deal on March 15. The buyer is a Sarasota company headed by Pravin Gadhia, according to state corporate records.

The seller, a Bradenton company controlled by Vipul and Vasantbhai Patel, had owned the hotel since buying it for $1.1 million.

Hotel management was unavailable to comment on the sale Wednesday.

Travelers Oasis is largely made up of a collection of a half-dozen hotels, restaurants and office buildings built around a circular road. It is highly visible to traffic exiting southbound Interstate 75.

Hotel real estate has been a hot commodity in that neighborhood. In November, Bradenton company BW Hotels bought a Best Western adjacent to the Days Inn from a Tampa company for $4 million. Last March, a company controlled by Connecticut resident Dharmesh Patel bought The Americas Best Value Inn at 607 67th St. Circle E. for $2.55 million.

One other hotel in the neighborhood, the 105-room Sunrise Inn, was on the market briefly last year. It did not sell and is no longer listed for sale.

Hotels are a popular buy in Manatee County, in part because of the robust visitor traffic. Elliott Falcione, the executive director of the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, said about 97 percent of the 6,200 short-term rental units in the county are currently occupied.

Of that number, only about 15 percent of the short-term units are hotel and motel rooms.

Falcione said the rates for short-term rentals are at a seasonal high of about $192. That is up from the off-season average of about $177.

Matt M. Johnson, Herald business reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7027 or on Twitter@MattAtBradenton.

This story was originally published March 23, 2016 at 11:25 PM with the headline "Bradenton Days Inn near Interstate 75 sells for $3.05 million ."