As detailed by Business Immo on November 10, numerous four- and five-star properties have attracted capital to the French hotel industry since the start of the 2025 financial year. Bernard Arnault, for example, bought a jewel of a hotel on the Mediterranean coast, the Cap Estel, for €200 million — and the momentum continues.
L Catterton, a private equity fund backed by luxury giant LVMH, and Cedar Capital, a real estate investment fund specializing in hotels, have positioned themselves for the Garden Beach hotel at 15-17 boulevard Edouard Baudoin, Juan-les-Pins. This four-star hotel is an emblematic feature of this seaside resort area, but has been closed since 2020.
A provisional sale agreement was signed by the two funds last September, as revealed by Jean Leonetti, the LR party mayor of Antibes Juan-les-Pins, at the last town council meeting. A candidate in his own re-election bid for the 2026 municipal elections, the mayor pointed out that L Catterton and Cedar Capital have a project to transform the Garden Beach into a 170-room, five-star hotel. However, he pointed out that the sale includes a suspensive clause aimed at transferring a public service delegation, DSP, which will operate the beach, to the future owners. This is a point on which the municipal council has deliberated, the outcome of which is not yet public.
It should be noted that information that this establishment was to be sold was already circulating at the beginning of this year. However, when contacted by Business Immo, several specialists in the French Riviera market were skeptical about the chances of the sale going through, particularly in view of the capital expenditures required for renovation. L Catterton and Cedar Capital, however, were not deterred.
The former distinguished itself last year by acquiring a 25% stake in Value Retail from Hammerson. The latter has already made a name for itself in France, selling Le Meridien Paris Arc de Triomphe for €365 million.
Former owners very active in the USA
Their new hotel is commonly referred to as "the wart of Juan-les-Pins" by local residents and shopkeepers, echoing several Nice-Matin articles about the establishment's inactivity over the past five years. It was bought in 2014 for €30 million from the Partouche group by The Chetrit Group, an American group founded by the Chetrit siblings: Joseph, Meyer, Judah and Jacob — who passed away earlier this year.
This Moroccan family made their fortune in textiles, before tackling the American real estate market. New York, Los Angeles, Miami... The Chetrit Group has invested in numerous cities and asset classes, including offices, housing and hotels. For example, it signed the 550 Madison, the ex-Sony Tower, in New York in 2013 for a cool $1.1 billion, according to CoStar data.
More recently, the group sold a residential tower in Miami to Flow, the company launched by former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann, as reported in our columns on August 13. According to CoStar data, The Chetrit Group is on a divestment trend, having sold 20 properties in the last 24 months, compared with one acquisition.
The sale of the Garden Beach hotel is part of this dynamic for The Chetrit Group, whose name was not mentioned at the last Antibes Juan-les-Pins town council meeting. The mayor did, however, indicate that the companies selling the hotel's business and premises were represented by C Management, a company itself headed by Compagnie Financière de Choiseul, headed by Éric Elkain.
Compagnie Financière de Choiseul, which this year has positioned itself at 29-33 Champs-Élysées via its subsidiary Choiseul REIM, as revealed by Business Immo on October 16.
One of several transformation projects in Juan-les-Pins
In addition to this five-star hotel project, the commune of Juan-les-Pins has undergone several major transformations in recent years.
Le Provençal is just a few meters from Garden Beach. Built in 1926 by American billionaire Frank Jay Gould, this former palace has hosted a host of celebrities including Marilyn Monroe, Coco Chanel, Charlie Chaplin, Ella Fitzgerald, Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway and Paul McCartney. Closed since 1976, it was bought in 2014 by the British group Caudwell, who transformed it into a luxury residence where apartments have been on offer since this year from €4.5 million or $5.27 million.
Finally, on the same street, there's another five-star establishment, the Hôtel Belles Rives. In 1925, it was the Villa Saint-Louis where the American writer Francis Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, known as Gatsby the Magnificent in French, and Tender is the Night, lived with his wife Zelda.