Atlas in the news
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Debt stress boosts California hotel transaction volume in 2025
Refinancing costs, cash flow problems mean owners have fewer options By Bryan Wroten | CoStar News | February 5, 2026 | 6:30 AM The hotel deals pace picked up in California during the second half of 2025, driven in large part by distressed sales. The California Hotel Sales Survey 2025 Year End from Atlas Hospitality Group reported 259 individual hotel sales, a 4.4% year-over-year increase. Total dollar volume amounted to nearly $4.1 billion, a 22% year-over-year increase, but the median price per room fell by 7.2% to $138,000. The company’s mid-year survey reported a 7.4% year-over-year drop in individual sales. Distress was a significant factor in the increased number of deals this year, Atlas President Alan Reay said. For example, the Parc 55 and Hilton Union Square hotels in San Francisco sold at a deep discount to their prior valuations. Many lenders were likely trying to get some of the stressed properties off their balance sheets before the end of the year, leading to higher transaction and dollar volumes. Along with the San Francisco properties, there are motivated sellers, such as Ashford Hospitality Trust and other publicly traded hotel real estate investment trusts, that were able to sell at “market pricing,” he said. The state may actually have a record number…
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New hotel openings in 2025 climb in California, but limited in the North Bay
By Cheryl Sarfaty | cheryl.sarfaty@busjrnl.com | North Bay Business Journal PUBLISHED: January 14, 2026 at 7:21 PM PST | UPDATED: January 15, 2026 at 11:52 AM PST Hotel openings across California finished 2025 with a year-over-year increase of 43%, according to a newly released survey. Most of the hotel openings were in Southern California, rising 128% year over year, compared to 43% in Northern California, according to Atlas Hospitality Group’s California Hotel Development Survey 2025. Atlas is a Newport Beach-based real estate brokerage that tracks the industry. Statewide last year, 50 new hotels opened totaling of 7,100 rooms, and 96 new hotels comprised of 11,121 rooms were under construction. In the planning stages were 1,120 hotels, made up of 140,526 rooms, according to Atlas’ year-end survey. The firm also releases mid-year surveys, both for hotel development projects and hotel sales, the latter year-end report expected next month. “New room openings increased far more sharply in Southern California than in Northern California, highlighting that 2025’s acceleration is real but unevenly distributed and concentrated in select (Southern California) counties,” said Alan X. Reay, president of Atlas. To that end, San Diego County led the state with 2,034 new rooms opened, driven by the 1,600-room Gaylord Pacific Resort in Chula Vista, the largest…
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Hotel development plummets in Bay Area as lodging uncertainties linger
Bay Area hotel market has yet to recover from post-coronavirus maladies By George Avalos | gavalos@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group PUBLISHED: January 15, 2026 at 8:19 AM PST | UPDATED: January 15, 2026 at 8:24 AM PST Construction of hotels has plunged in the Bay Area, a nosedive that was unleashed by stubborn problems for hotel financing and elevated construction costs, a new report from Atlas Hospitality Group shows. An estimated 15 hotels with an aggregate 1,610 rooms were under construction in the Bay Area during 2025, representing a sharp decline from the equivalent totals in 2024, according to the report from Atlas Hospitality. This news organization derived the totals from figures that Atlas Hospitality compiled for its report. “Financing friction and elevated construction costs are still limiting new starts,” Alan Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group, wrote in the company’s report. The number of hotels under construction in the Bay Area fell 28.6%, while the number of hotel rooms under construction in the region dropped 34.3%, an analysis of the Atlas Hospitality figures shows. An estimated 21 hotels with an aggregate total of 2,452 rooms were under construction in the nine-county region in 2024, according to the Atlas Hospitality report. The decline in hotel construction activity…
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Prominent La Jolla-area hotel sells for close to half of last sales price
The 340-room, all-suites hotel was built in 1987 and is steps from the neighboring Westfield UTC mall By Lori Weisberg | lori.weisberg@sduniontribune.com | The San Diego Union-Tribune PUBLISHED: January 13, 2026 at 6:00 AM PST | UPDATED: January 13, 2026 at 10:05 AM PST The Embassy Suites by Hilton San Diego La Jolla has been sold to a Los Angeles-based investment company for $111 million — slightly more than half the price of just four years ago. The sale of the 340-room all-suites property, located across from the Westfield UTC, marks the highest-priced San Diego County hotel transaction of 2025, despite what appears to be a deeply discounted price, according to the brokerage firm Atlas Hospitality Group. Selling the hotel was BioMed Realty, a San Diego firm that is focused more on the life science and technology industries, although BioMed is owned by Blackstone, a mammoth private equity firm that does invest in hotels. The Embassy Suites is located close to the i3 life science and technology complex in the UTC area that is owned by BioMed and was formerly leased to Illumina. In a statement provided Monday by a BioMed spokesperson, the firm said that the property was originally acquired “as a redevelopment opportunity. Given the…
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California Hotel Openings Rise in 2025, but New Development Pipeline Shrinks
CoStar January, 13 2026 California experienced a notable increase in hotel openings in 2025, but industry reports indicate a significant slowdown in new hotel development projects due to rising construction costs and other barriers, suggesting the trend of increased openings may not continue. Increase in Hotel Openings Driven by Past Projects California saw 50 new hotels with 7,100 rooms open in 2025, representing a 43% increase compared to 2024, according to Atlas Hospitality Group’s California Development Survey 2025 Year End. However, this increase largely reflects projects that were already near completion in previous years rather than a surge in new developments. The mid-year survey showed 36 hotels opened in the first half of 2025, a 64% year-over-year increase, with 5,369 rooms—an increase of 135% compared to the prior year. A significant portion of this growth was due to the opening of the 1,600-room Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center in Chula Vista in May. Excluding this project, 35 hotels with 3,769 rooms opened in the first half, compared with 15 hotels with 3,331 rooms in the second half. Atlas Hospitality Group President Alan Reay noted that the scale of the Gaylord project skewed the overall numbers, as it is comparable to…
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San Diego County outpaces all California metro areas for new hotel rooms in 2025
The opening of the 1,600-room Gaylord Pacific Resort helped boost new development numbers for both San Diego County and the state as a whole By Lori Weisberg | lori.weisberg@sduniontribune.com | The San Diego Union-Tribune PUBLISHED: January 9, 2026 at 6:00 AM PST | UPDATED: January 9, 2026 at 1:24 PM PST Even as hotel development slowed across the state, San Diego County saw a surge in hotel openings in 2025, driven by the debut of the 1,600-room Gaylord Pacific Resort in Chula Vista. The Gaylord hotel is so large that it almost singlehandedly helped boost statewide hotel real estate performance last year. The megaproject effectively made California totals look especially strong, despite relatively modest levels of new hotel room supply in severalother counties, reports Atlas Hospitality Group, which released its year-end development report on Thursday.https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/ckcXp/1/ Statewide, 50 hotel projects accounting for 7,100 rooms debuted in 2025, compared with 35 properties consisting of nearly 3,800 rooms a year earlier. The contrast was even more marked in San Diego County, where a total of five hotels accounting for 2,034 rooms opened last year, compared with just a single 179-room property opening in 2024, reported Atlas, an Orange County-based brokerage and advisory firm specializing in hotel properties. Besides the Gaylord…
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While more hotels open in California, fewer enter development pipeline
High cost of construction labor, materials an obstacle By Bryan Wroten | CoStar News | January 9, 2026 | 6:33 AM California saw a year-over-year increase in new hotel openings in 2025, but that’s a reflection of the projects nearing the finish line last year and not a sign of a new trend. Atlas Hospitality Group’s California Development Survey 2025 Year End reports 50 new hotels with 7,100 rooms opened last year, a 43% increase compared to the number of hotels that opened in 2024. But some context is necessary. The mid-year survey found 36 hotels opened in California in the first six months of 2025, a 64% year-over-year increase. The number of hotel rooms that opened was 5,369, a 135% increase. That gives the impression that openings significantly slowed in the second half of the year, but the 1,600-key Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center opened in May in Chula Vista. Excluding the Gaylord opening, 35 hotels opened with 3,769 rooms in the first half of the year compared to 15 hotels with 3,331 rooms in the second half. “To have a project that size, I mean, that could equate to 10 hotels,” Atlas President Alan Reay said. “That definitely threw it off.” The…
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Oakland hotel near airport bought at huge reduction in value
Courtyard By Marriott Oakland Airport at 320 Hegenberger Road in Oakland, seen in July 2025. OAKLAND — An Oakland hotel near the city’s international airport has been bought in a deal that points to continued weakness in the Bay Area hospitality market. The Courtyard by Marriott Oakland Airport hotel was purchased for $12.5 million, documents filed on Dec. 26 with the Alameda County Recorder’s Office show. Harprit Dhillon, a business executive based in the Sacramento County city of Elk Grove, headed up the affiliated buying group that bought the 156-room hotel at 320 Hegenberger Road in Oakland, according to state public documents. “This is a great price for this hotel,” said Alan Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group, which tracks the California lodging market. “The buyer will be able to own this as a long-term investment.” The $12.5 million price works out to roughly $80,100 a room. That’s a huge decline from the property’s assessed value and its per-room value derived from recent re-financings of the hotel, which is near Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport. In 2016, the hotel was refinanced for $43.9 million, and in 2018, the hospitality hub was refinanced for $32.1 million, according to Real Capital Analytics. The…
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Busy real estate investor buys another South Bay hotel at low price
Southern California group buys two Santa Clara County hotels in same week By George Avalos | gavalos@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group PUBLISHED: December 19, 2025 at 8:30 AM PST | UPDATED: December 19, 2025 at 11:56 AM PST SUNNYVALE — A Southern California group bought a second Santa Clara County hotel in recent days at a price that points to ongoing tough times for the Bay Area hotel market. The Sonesta ES Suites Sunnyvale, a 138-room hotel, was purchased for $15 million, documents filed on Dec. 18 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office show. San Diego-based Kalthia Group Hotels acted through an affiliate to buy the property at 900 Hamlin Ct., according to county records. The day before the Sunnyvale transaction, Kalthia Group Hotels bought Sonesta ES Suites at 1602 Crane Ct. in North San Jose for $16 million. Hospitality Properties Trust was the seller in both recent transactions. The purchases were made at what appears to be an exceedingly low price for a Bay Area hotel. The Kalthia firm bought the Sunnyvale Sonesta ES Suites at a price that equated to about $108,700 a room. The 114-room Sonesta ES Suites in North San Jose was purchased at a per-room price of roughly $140,350. Kalthia Group Hotels…
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Sonder had years of red flags before Marriott made a deal — and travelers got left in the lurch
By Madeline Berg, Natalie Musumeci, and Kelsey Vlamis Nov 21, 2025, 1:17 AM PT The warning signs were there. Long before guests found themselves abruptly kicked out of their “Sonder by Marriott” stays this month, Sonder, the Airbnb rival, was battling sloppy accounting, a litany of lawsuits, and a stock price so low it was nearly delisted from the Nasdaq. Bankruptcy filings and SEC records show just how stark the signs were — and raise questions about why Marriott, the world’s biggest hotel chain, got into bed with the one-time unicorn. The San Francisco startup, founded in 2014, leased apartments and hotel rooms in bulk, redesigned them with a minimalist aesthetic, and rented them to travelers. It’s the brainchild of Canadian Francis Davidson, who is the ideal of a 2010s founder: VC-backed, college dropout, Forbes 30 Under 30. He offered a “revolutionary” promise: Goodbye, poorly decorated Airbnbs with quirky hosts. Hello, streamlined rentals managed with modern technology. In August 2024, he unveiled his pièce de résistance: a deal between Sonder and blue-chip Marriott, which was heralded as a way to bring that vision into the future. “Making this deal happen — along with the multi-party, complex capital raise I orchestrated — was the hardest thing I’ve…
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Busy real estate investor buys another South Bay hotel at low price
Southern California group buys two Santa Clara County hotels in same week By George Avalos | gavalos@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group PUBLISHED: December 19, 2025 at 8:30 AM PST | UPDATED: December 19, 2025 at 11:56 AM PST SUNNYVALE — A Southern California group bought a second Santa Clara County hotel in recent days at a price that points to ongoing tough times for the Bay Area hotel market. The Sonesta ES Suites Sunnyvale, a 138-room hotel, was purchased for $15 million, documents filed on Dec. 18 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office show. San Diego-based Kalthia Group Hotels acted through an affiliate to buy the property at 900 Hamlin Ct., according to county records. The day before the Sunnyvale transaction, Kalthia Group Hotels bought Sonesta ES Suites at 1602 Crane Ct. in North San Jose for $16 million. Hospitality Properties Trust was the seller in both recent transactions. The purchases were made at what appears to be an exceedingly low price for a Bay Area hotel. The Kalthia firm bought the Sunnyvale Sonesta ES Suites at a price that equated to about $108,700 a room. The 114-room Sonesta ES Suites in North San Jose was purchased at a per-room price of roughly $140,350. Kalthia Group Hotels…
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San Jose hotel that might become housing complex is bought at weak price
Sonesta ES Suites San Jose Airport, a hotel at 1602 Crane Court in north San Jose. SAN JOSE — A San Jose hotel that is being eyed as a site for a possible conversion to housing has been bought at a price that suggests lodging property values remain feeble in the Bay Area. The Sonesta ES Suites hotel in north San Jose has been bought for $16 million by an affiliate headed up by San Diego-based Kalthia Group Hotels, according to documents filed on Dec. 17 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office. Earlier this year, Kalthia Group Hotels executives floated a preliminary proposal to convert the 114-room suites hotel into residences. “This makes sense as a housing conversion,” said Alan Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group, which tracks the California lodging market. “Suites already have kitchens, so that makes a conversion easier.” In 2018, Hospitality Properties Trust, through an affiliate, paid $21.3 million for the hotel, county property files show. This means the most recent price is about 25% below what Hospitality Properties Trust paid for the hotel, which is located at 1602 Crane Ct. The latest purchase deal involving the Sonesta ES Suites places a value on the hotel of…
