Ryman Hospitality Properties (NYSE: RHP) agreed to acquire the Grande Lakes Orlando resort complex for $1.38 billion, the Nashville-based hotel REIT disclosed Aug. 10, 2026, marking one of the largest single-resort transactions of the year and giving the company its first Ritz-Carlton-branded property.
According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ryman is buying the fee-simple interest in the 409-acre Orlando, Fla., complex from Trinity Investments. The property includes a 1,010-room JW Marriott and a 582-room Ritz-Carlton β 1,592 rooms combined β along with about 320,000 square feet of meeting space, a 40,000-square-foot spa, 14 food and beverage outlets, a waterpark and an 18-hole golf course. Trinity has invested roughly $150 million in capital improvements at the property in recent years. Marriott International will continue operating both hotels after the deal closes.
The purchase price equates to a 12.5-times multiple of the property’s adjusted EBITDAre of roughly $110 million over the trailing 12 months through June 30, 2026, according to the filing. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions, and Ryman said it expects the acquisition to be accretive to adjusted funds from operations per share beginning in 2027.
“Grande Lakes is a terrific asset and one that fits all of our ownership criteria,” said Ryman CEO Mark Fioravanti in the filing. He said the deal “strengthens our JW Marriott and Gaylord Hotels customer rotation strategies” β a reference to Ryman’s practice of rotating large convention and meetings clients among its network of big-box hotels β while also introducing Ritz-Carlton as a new luxury brand within the company’s portfolio for the first time.
BofA Securities and J.P. Morgan advised Ryman on the transaction’s financial terms, while Bass, Berry & Sims PLC and Greenberg Traurig LLP served as legal counsel.
Ryman is best known for its Gaylord Hotels brand, a chain of massive convention-focused resort hotels including Gaylord Opryland in Nashville and Gaylord National near Washington, D.C., that cater to large corporate meetings and conventions. Before the Grande Lakes deal, the company’s hotel portfolio spanned 12,364 rooms and more than 3 million square feet of meeting space across five Gaylord properties, two existing JW Marriott hotels and two ancillary hotels; Ryman also owns roughly 70% of Opry Entertainment Group, the country-music entertainment business behind the Grand Ole Opry and Ryman Auditorium. The Grande Lakes acquisition extends the company’s meetings-and-events-focused strategy into the Orlando market β one of the largest meetings and conventions destinations in North America β while adding a luxury tier, Ritz-Carlton, that Ryman has not previously owned.
Fioravanti said the deal “expands our presence in the nation’s top meetings market and creates the opportunity for meaningful portfolio synergies.” The release did not disclose how Ryman intends to finance the purchase β whether through cash on hand, new debt or a combination β and included standard cautionary language noting risks that the transaction could be delayed or terminated, along with broader risk factors detailed in the company’s SEC filings.
What it means: At $1.38 billion, the Grande Lakes deal ranks among the largest single-property hotel transactions of 2026 and signals continued institutional appetite for large, amenity-rich convention resorts even as some segments of commercial real estate remain under pressure from higher borrowing costs. The 12.5-times EBITDA multiple is a useful benchmark for a sector where the broader U.S. hotel construction pipeline has continued expanding even as high-end resort and convention properties like Grande Lakes command premium pricing relative to typical hotel assets. The deal also continues a pattern of REITs expanding into adjacent luxury hospitality niches this year, similar to how VICI Properties has been expanding its footprint alongside Caesars in Las Vegas, as large hospitality landlords look for ways to diversify beyond their traditional brand concentrations.
