Allegiant gets $175M loan to build Florida resort project

More than a year and a half after it announced the project, Allegiant Air’s parent company has obtained outside funding for its Florida resort.

Ultra-low-cost airline Allegiant Travel Co. on Monday finalized a $175 million construction loan from TPG Sixth Street Partners to bankroll the first phase of Sunseeker Resorts Charlotte Harbor.

Overall, the San Francisco investment firm has the right to offer up to $1 billion for future phases of the waterfront project or other Sunseeker locations, Allegiant said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The initial phase of Sunseeker Resorts Charlotte Harbor calls for around 510 hotel rooms, 189 extended-stay units, meeting and conference space, and restaurants, bars and retail, according to a news release Monday.

Construction of the resort is scheduled to be completed in fall 2020, according to Sunseeker’s website.

Hilarie Grey, spokeswoman for Las Vegas-based Allegiant, said the first phase will cost $470 million, including $50 million that was already spent for the land.

“We are so pleased to partner with (TPG Sixth Street) — not only for strategic capital to construct our inaugural resort in Charlotte Harbor, but also to develop the Sunseeker Resorts brand, where we share a vision for tremendous opportunity in the future,” Allegiant President John Redmond said in Monday’s announcement.

Clint Kollar, a partner with TPG Sixth Street, said in the release that the firm is “pleased” to be financing a new resort brand “that integrates the strength of a proven airline operation with a tremendous existing customer base and a highly successful direct-sales model.”

Allegiant, known for flying from small, underserved cities to warm-weather vacation spots, often without competition on its routes, announced plans for the 22-acre resort in August 2017.

The project is Allegiant’s first foray into the hotel business, and its unveiling came almost a year after Redmond, a former casino executive, was named president of the airline in September 2016.

“You can’t take a Vegas-style hotel and stick it in another location like Florida,” Redmond said when Sunseeker was announced. “We’re selling a lifestyle.”

Allegiant indicated in late January that it had lined up $175 million for Sunseeker from a “well-known institutional asset manager” and that it expected to close on the financing by the end of this quarter. At the time, Allegiant did not name the asset manager.

Grey said Monday that there was no expectation for how long it would take to obtain project funding.

The resort, in Port Charlotte, Florida, is near Punta Gorda Airport. Allegiant is the airport’s only commercial airline, according to airport spokeswoman Kaley Miller.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.