Atlas in the news

The Registry 04/24/18 KT Urban Proposes 220-Room Hotel in San Jose Next to Hotel De Anza By Vladimir Bosanac http://news.theregistrysf.com/kt-urban-proposes-220-room-hotel-in-san-jose-next-to-hotel-de-anza/   Each week seems to be marked by news about downtown San Jose. The central business district of the Bay Area’s largest city has seen much-deserved attention since Apple and Google have announced to build mega-campuses inside the city limits and Adobe doubled down on their urban campus there. This week, another exciting project has been submitted to city planners for consideration—a 220-room luxury hotel at 270 West Santa Clara Street, called Almaden Corner, on the same block as the famed Hotel De Anza and the Axis condominium building. The project, designed by Portland, Oregon-based C2K Architecture, was submitted by Cupertino-based KT Urban, which has been actively pursuing a number of developments in the city’s downtown core in the recent years. KT Urban’s project is just entering the comprehensive preliminary review process, so at this point in time, the design may be subject to change, as well as the massing and scale of the proposed project. What the developer has envisioned is a 19-story high-rise that would provide roughly 157,000 square feet of space and 220 guest rooms on a…

Los Angeles Times 04/20/18 By James Rufus Koren http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-meruelo-sls-20180420-story.html Three decades ago, a 23-year-old kid from Whittier, the son of Cuban immigrants, had an idea for a new kind of pizzeria — one that would serve predominantly Latino neighborhoods and offer then-uncommon toppings like chorizo and jalapeños. He took over a failed pizza joint in Huntington Park, called it La Pizza Loca and, within five years, had more than two dozen locations and sales of nearly $10 million… …Alan X. Reay, president of hotel brokerage and advisory firm Atlas Hospitality, said it’s a near-certainty that Meruelo paid substantially less for the SLS than Nazarian and his primary investor, Stockbridge Capital, spent just on renovating the property. “He’s obviously a very smart, savvy investor,” Reay said. “From a timing standpoint, he seems to have made a very good business of buying right. It doesn’t matter how strong the market is — if you don’t buy it right, not much else matters.” Still, turning around the SLS will be a task…

Los Angeles Times 04/19/18 Welcome to L.A.’s Luxury Hotel Boom, Featuring $20,000 Suites and James Bond Exotic Cars By Hugo Martin http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-five-star-hotels-20180419-story.html   At the newest five-star hotel around Los Angeles, a massive bronze chandelier hangs from its nearly three-story Art Deco lobby, suffused with the scent of fresh-cut roses. Upstairs, each room is fitted with floor-to-ceiling windows that open to balconies with views of Santa Monica Bay on one side and the Hollywood sign on the other. Each guest is pampered too, assigned a personal concierge to pick up dry cleaning, book dinner reservations and snag tickets to the Dodgers or, if preferred, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Welcome to the five-star Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, a $200-million hotel that opened last year amid a worldwide boom of high-end hospitality construction that has benefited Los Angeles. During the Great Recession, developers put a hold on such ultra-luxury hotels, opting instead to build budget inns or overhaul mid-scale lodgings. But now that the economy is thriving and travel demand is at record levels, luxury is back. “L.A. is becoming the place to be again,” said hotelier Beny Alagem, who built the 12-story Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills and owns the neighboring…

San Francisco Business Times 04/11/18 New Owner of Iconic Nob Hill Hotel Proposes Adding Rooms, Amenity Space By Katie Burke https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2018/04/11/intercontinental-igh-mark-hopkins-nob-hill-sf.html One of San Francisco’s largest hotels wants to make major changes with plans to add rooms and amenities. The new owners of the InterContinental Mark Hopkins have proposed demolishing a portion of the 383-room property that’s now used as office space to make room for new guest suites and indoor wellness facilities. If approved, the office annex fronting Pine Street would be replaced as part of plans to “update the hotel as a first-class destination atop Nob Hill,” according to a preliminary proposal filed with the city. The proposal for 999 California St. was filed about a year after the property traded hands for nearly $206 million. Hong Kong-based investor Leadwell Global Properties bought the hotel early last year from affiliates of Woodridge Capital Partners. Woodridge paid $120 million for the hotel in early 2014. Rooms at the hotel now range from $259 to $459 per night, according to San Francisco Business Times research. Along with additional rooms, the overhaul would include a new roof terrace next to the hotel’s ballroom, piggybacking off the increasing popularity of rooftop venues…

Bisnow 03/27/18 Hospitable Housing: Motels Are Being Repurposed to Support the Homeless Population By Joseph Pimentel https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/affordable-housing/turning-motels-into-homes-for-the-homeless-86613 Legend has it in the mid-1970s two young computer programmers, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, stayed at a New Mexico motel where they came up with a little-known computer program called Microsoft that would later change the world. The two men would move out and eventually become multibillionaires, but The Sundowner Motel along Albuquerque’s Historic Route 66 fell into disrepair. In the coming decades, the motel attracted vagrants, crime and prostitution until another visionary turned the property around. In 2014, New Life Homes CEO John Bloomfield turned the dilapidated 110-room motel into a 71-unit mixed-use affordable housing development with 3,400 SF of commercial space. “When we came in, it was a big mess,” Bloomfield said. “Now, it’s one of our success stories.” The Sundowner is one of many motels nationwide that has been converted into affordable housing over the years, and the trend is gaining momentum. In Orange County, Newport Beach-based affordable housing builder Community Development Partners recently opened The Orchard, a 72-unit development for chronic homeless individuals in Santa Ana. Other cities nationwide are continuing to either look into converting or creating…

Building Design + Construction 03/27/18 Shawmut Design and Construction’s Burgeoning L.A. Office Looks to Hospitality and Interiors for Future Growth By John Caulfield https://www.bdcnetwork.com/shawmut-design-and-construction%E2%80%99s-burgeoning-la-office-looks-hospitality-and-interiors-future-growth Last year, California opened 10,793 hotel rooms, a record for the state according to Atlas Hospitality Group. California has 859 hotels and 125,749 rooms in various stages of planning. In Los Angeles alone, where 4,309 hotel rooms opened last year, there are another 5,327 rooms under construction. Those projects include Soho Warehouse, a major renovation, designed by Killefer Flammang Architects, of a six-story 100-year building in L.A.’s Arts District; and the boutique Hoxton Hotel, a $30 million renovation, designed by GREC Architects, of a 10-story building along the city’s downtown Broadway corridor that dates back to 1925. Shawmut Design and Construction is handling the construction management for both of these hotels. The growth of Los Angeles’ hospitality sector has become a driving force behind the expansion of Shawmut’s L.A. office, designed by Gensler, which recently added 2,400 sf and is now 15,000 sf. Shawmut has been doing business in L.A. since 1995, and moved into its first office, on Wilshire Boulevard, in February 2013. It relocated to its current office, west side of the city, in…

San Francisco Business Times 03/23/18 Plans for 21-story SoMa Hotel Shrink by Nearly 200 Rooms By Katie Burke https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2018/03/23/downsized-hotel-sf-central-soma-plan-hospitality.html   The developer of a proposed 21-story SoMa hotel will cut seven stories and nearly 200 rooms from its original plan. Initially slated to include 480 rooms, Bethesda, Md.-based developer Englewood LLC has scaled back its plans for 350 Second St. after city planners told it to dial back the original design. The updated plans to transform the Central SoMa parking lot include 294 rooms, an underground parking garage and more than 3,000 square feet of restaurant and bar space. The original design drawn up by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill was caught in the crossfire between the city’s Central SoMa Plan and neighboring condo owners, who opposed its 200-foot height. The revised design is in line with their preference for no neighboring buildings to be higher than 130 feet. Englewood President Ken Finkelstein said the revised plans will result in a smaller project, but wouldn’t have any impact on which hotel flag it will choose to operate the property. “We’re not intending for this to be a Waldorf Astoria or a super luxury property like that,” he said. “This is also…

California Lodging Magazine March/April 2018 https://atlashospitality.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Cal-Lodging-California-Hotel-Development-Sets-Record-in-2017-201803.pdf

Orange County Business Journal 03/14/18 Laguna Beach Art Hotel Sells By Paul Hughes http://www.ocbj.com/news/2018/mar/14/laguna-beach-art-hotel-sells/   Art Hotel in Laguna Beach sold for $7.7 million. Irvine-based Atlas Hospitality Group brokers represented both buyer, Sutter County Hospitality Inc. in San Francisco, and seller, Emerald Bay Inn LLC in Laguna Beach. Emerald Bay has owned the hotel since buying it for $2.7 million 15 years ago. Principals of the company previously owned 14 West Hotel, also in Laguna Beach, which they sold in 2012. The purchase price works out to $276,000 per room for the 28-room property on Pacific Coast Highway, near Crescent Bay Beach.

HotelNewsNow 03/13/18 California Hotel Deals in 2018 Likely to Remain Robust It came as a bit of a surprise that 2017 was such a strong year for California hotel transactions, but experts watching the deals environment expect 2018 to be just as good, if not better. By Bryan Wroten http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/279664/California-hotel-deals-in-2018-likely-to-remain-robust   REPORT FROM CALIFORNIA—In 2017, California hotel transactions reached a dollar volume of $6.2 billion, the fourth-highest total since Atlas Hospitality Group has tracked hotel sales in the state. Based on 2017’s sales and pending sales heading into 2018, sources said they believe this year will be just as busy. 2016 was a good year for transactions, said Alan Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group, but sales slowed by the end of the year, so the expectation for 2017 was sales would remain flat. That wasn’t the case, however, as the state recorded 369 individual transactions, including 32 trophy property sales of $50 million or more, beating New York’s 13 and Florida’s 10. California also had the most sales where the price per key came to at least $1 million of any state. “The pace has not slowed down,” he said. “If anything, those we’re tracking in escrow is up…

The Real Deal Lightstone Group’s 1,150-key Hotel Project Gets Preliminary Green Light By Natalie Hoberman https://therealdeal.com/la/2018/03/12/lightstone-groups-1150-key-hotel-project-gets-preliminary-green-light/   Lightstone Group has cleared another hurdle as it sets out to build “Fig + Pico,” a large mixed-use project slated across the street from the Los Angeles Convention Center. The L.A. Planning Commission approved the project, which now heads to the City Council for final approval, CoStar reported. The New York-based developer wants to build three hotel brands in two buildings. One 38-story tower, located at the corner of South Figueroa and West Pico boulevards, would include 775 rooms and 11,000 square feet of retail and parking. The other 27-story building, located at the corner of Pico and South Flower Street, would have 378 rooms and 2,145 square feet of retail. Gensler and landscape architect AHBE are designing the project. As part of the approval process, Lightstone will pay $1 million to the city for neighborhood efforts, such as graffiti removal. In November, Lightstone paid the city $9.6 million to acquire an 18,800-square-foot, city-owned parcel where it plans to build the complex. The City Council’s Economic Development Committee approved the sale, marking a major step for the project. The developer first filed plans…

Patch 02/16/18 Sale of Southern California Hotels Increase in 2017 By Hoa Quach https://patch.com/california/beverlyhills/sale-southern-california-hotels-increase-2017   SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA — Real estate transactions involving Southern California hotels increased in 2017. The Orange County Register reported that transactions worth $3.8 billion happened in the last year, an increase of 8 percent. Roughly 180 hotels in the region were sold last year, seven more than the previous year, the newspaper reported. Citing the Atlas Hospitality, the Register said “32 ‘trophy’ hotels, priced $50-million-plus, sold in California in 2017, more than any other state.” The most expensive sale in the region was The Jeremy in West Hollywood, which sold for $280 million. In San Diego, the Park Hyatt Aviara sold for $187 million, while the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort in Palm Desert sold for $160 million, the Register said. Southern California continues to be a hot spot for tourists with pricing for hotel rooms ranging from $94 to $545, according to the Ventura County Star. The newspaper said the priciest hotel room was found in Beverly Hills where the average room rate was $545 in 2017.