Pair of older St. Pete Beach hotels are ripe for repositioning

Despite its outsized $100 million purchase price, this month’s acquisition by a Gencom Group-led partnership of the Grand Plaza Resort and Beachcomber Beach Hotel & Resort, both on St. Pete Beach, appear to be somewhat out of character for the Miami-based company.

That’s because Gencom, a firm founded in 1987 by hotel veteran Karim Alibhai that has completed $7 billion worth of hospitality deals since its inception, typically invests in luxury properties.