Atlas in the news

Bisnow 01/11/18 California Hotel Construction to Increase in 2018 By Jackie Bryant https://www.bisnow.com/san-diego/news/hotel/california-to-see-increase-in-hotel-construction-during-2018-83530   California’s hotel business is booming. The state set a new record in 2017 for the most hotel rooms opened in a single year, according to Atlas Hospitality Group’s 2017 California Hotel Development Survey. The 10,793 rooms that came online edged out 2008’s previous high of 10,286 rooms. California boasts 859 hotels with 125,749 reported rooms in various stages of planning, a 23% room-count increase over 2016. Los Angeles and Riverside counties led the charge, with 4,309 and 1,236 rooms opened, respectively. The 889‐room InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown was the largest hotel to open in California. Los Angeles is also the leader in construction, with 5,327 rooms under construction. San Diego County is next, with 2,823. Although 2017 was a record‐breaking year for California hotel development, 2018 is on track to be even stronger despite the increase in supply. At present, there are 145 hotels with 20,693 rooms under construction. Strong occupancy levels and profit margins are combined with a highly favorable economic outlook that hinges on stock market and home-value growth, according to the report. It is expected that California will continue to attract overseas investment…

GlobeSt.com 01/10/18 Hotel Conversion Gets Construction Boost By Carrie Rossenfeld http://www.globest.com/sites/carrierossenfeld/2018/01/11/hotel-conversion-gets-construction-boost   SAN DIEGO— Developer Oram Hotels has received a $36.55-million loan for the continued renovation and development of Downtown San Diego’s historic 500 West Broadway building into an upscale, 163-room boutique hotel called the Guild San Diego. Regents Bank was the lender in the construction-loan transaction for the hotel, which is expected to be completed in Spring 2019. HFF’s debt-placement team including senior managing director Aldon Cole and managing director Scott Hall worked on behalf of Oram Hotels to secure the loan from Regents. The firm tells GlobeSt.com the 84,000-square-foot building was purchased for $14 million in 2014 out of bankruptcy, and Oram was successful in executing a purchase option with the armed forces branch of the government for the fee. The property at the time of acquisition was subject to low-income restrictions and operated as a 260-unit single-resident occupancy facility with a YMCA on the ground floor. Cole said in a prepared statement, “Oram Hotels capitalized on a great opportunity to preserve a piece of San Diego’s history while reactivating what will be one of the most unique and exciting properties Downtown has to offer.” The Guild San…

Orange County Business Journal 01/09/18 OC Hotel Development Down in 2017 By Paul Hughes http://www.ocbj.com/news/2018/jan/09/oc-hotel-development-down-2017/   Fewer and smaller hotels opened in Orange County last year, Atlas Hospitality Group in Irvine said. Six hotels with 960 rooms opened in OC in 2017, a room count a little more than half of 2016’s total of 1,808 rooms at seven hotels. The per-hotel average in 2017 was 160, compared with an average 258 rooms apiece at hotels opened in 2016. 2017’s average was boosted by the year’s largest opening, the 271-room Marriott Irvine Spectrum, by Newport Beach’s R.D. Olson Development. OC has eight hotels with 1,657 rooms under construction; the uptick in average room count to 207 is thrown off a bit by the gorilla at the construction site, Westin Anaheim Resort, the 613-room Wincome Group project near Anaheim Convention Center that broke ground in September. Los Angeles and Riverside counties saw increases in new hotel rooms in 2017, year-over-year; San Diego’s new room count declined slightly. All four counties had more projects in planning—70,000 rooms at 410 hotels—at year-end than they did 12 months earlier. OC’s take of that total: 57 hotels with about 11,200 rooms.

Orange County Business Journal 12/18/17 2018 Preview: Hospitality & Tourism By Paul Hughes http://www.ocbj.com/news/2017/dec/18/2018-preview-hospitality-tourism/   What have you done for me lately? Hospitality in recent years has seen its share of hype and change, from a hot hotel market to planned fantasies and tomorrows at Orange County tourist meccas. 2018 holds the latest takes on those, from the flip side of hotel building and buying to hints of what’s coming at Disneyland Resort. Hype will become realities—if at times virtual—as promised lands from the Star Wars-themed one at Disney to the latest iterations of “technology saves the tourism world” take shape. Stories to Watch • Look for amped up teasing out of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, an increasing intensity of material from news to marginalia on Disney’s in-development attraction—and related offerings in the far-flung empire. A virtual reality experience—Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire—is scheduled to open Jan. 5 at Downtown Disney to whet fan furor; note the naming protocol—“Star Wars: [Blank Blank]”—and that the VR deal is global; other sites are Disney World and a London mall. The Star Wars planet that Galaxy’s Edge is ostensibly on got its name in mid-November—Batuu—and next year the project will get an…

The Mercury News 12/15/17 Downtown San Jose’s Fairmont Hotel to Be Sold for $250 Million By George Avalos http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/12/15/fairmont-hotel-in-downtown-san-jose-slated-for-250-million-sale/   SAN JOSE — The Fairmont Hotel in downtown San Jose is slated to sell next year for $250 million, according to one of the principal owners of the iconic lodging complex. The 805-room hotel tower is expected to be bought by Eagle Canyon Capital, a San Ramon-based firm, said Lew Wolff, a principal executive with Maritz, Wolff — a realty investment firm that is the primary owner of the high-rise hotel. “We have had the Fairmont San Jose for a long time, and we have done very well there,” Wolff said. “We have had some softer times and better times with it. It’s been a lot of fun. This hotel is an icon.” Get breaking news with our free mobile app. Get it from the Apple app store or the Google Play store. The Fairmont, whose 22-story tower opened in 1987, was one of the key components in a decadeslong quest by San Jose city and business leaders to bring more activity into the downtown area. Wolff and his partners bought the Fairmont in 1996, at a time when the…

CoStar 12/13/17 San Diego Remains Hotbed for Hotel Development By Lou Hirsh http://www.costar.com/News/Article/San-Diego-Remains-Hotbed-for-Hotel-Development/196580 For 2018 and likely beyond, experts are expecting San Diego County to remain among California’s hottest spots for new hotel development. That’s thanks in part to a continued strong influx of tourists, conventioneers and business travelers into a market that has generally avoided glut conditions for many types of commercial properties, via a perennially modest pace of new construction relative to demand. Preliminary data from brokerage and research firm Atlas Hospitality Group indicates the San Diego region, as of early December, had 18 hotels under construction, with a total of 3,140 rooms. Within California, those numbers are second only to Los Angeles County, where 32 hotels totaling 5,379 rooms are currently under construction. “San Diego is actually the most active for development of new rooms as a percentage of the total current inventory of rooms in the market,” Atlas President Alan Reay told CoStar News. While it remains to be seen when they will get built, San Diego County has another 79 hotels in various stages of planning, representing 15,574 rooms. Atlas reported earlier this year that the region’s hotels and rooms in planning are both up…

HotelNewsNow 12/13/17 Hotels Mostly Unscathed by Latest California Wildfires The ongoing wildfires in Southern California are some of the worst in the state’s history, but few hotels are closing because of the fires; however, hoteliers are concerned about the potential loss of business from canceled and postponed bookings. http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/259583/Hotels-mostly-unscathed-by-latest-California-wildfires REPORT FROM THE U.S.—Another round of wildfires, this time in Southern California, has displaced thousands of people and burned acres of land, destroying hundreds of buildings. One of the wildfires, the Thomas fire, is said to be the fifth worst in the state’s history of wildfires. But unlike the wildfires in the Napa Valley and Sonoma areas of the state just months ago, so far this latest round seems to have left most hotels in the region relatively unscathed. Bobbie Singh-Allen, EVP of the California Lodging Industry Association, said fires in the Santa Barbara and Ventura areas are not fully contained yet, and some hotels there have been evacuated. She’s not aware of any hotels that have sustained damage from the fires, even in the evacuation areas, she said. “The main concern is the air quality,” she said, as some hotel employees working close to areas with active fires are wearing…

The Mercury News 12/06/17 San Jose Hotel Purchase Suggests Hot Silicon Valley Lodging Market By George Avalos http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/12/05/san-jose-hotel-purchase-suggests-hot-silicon-valley-lodging-market/ SAN JOSE — A big Holiday Inn north of downtown San Jose has been bought by a New York-based group in a nearly $62 million deal that points to a healthy hotel market in Silicon Valley. “This is a very strong hotel market right now,” said Alan Reay, president of Irvine-based Atlas Hospitality Group, which tracks the California lodging market. SJ 1st Street Hotel — a group controlled by White Plains, N.Y.-based real estate investment firm True North Management — paid $61.75 million in cash on Dec. 4, county records show. The 354-room hotel is located at 1350 N. First St., near East Gish Road. True North Management has bought, financed or made equity investments in “office, retail, hospitality, multifamily and other property types.” Its investments have a combined transaction value of $965 million, according to the company’s website. True North couldn’t be reached for comment on Tuesday. The Holiday Inn’s seller was Aju Hotel San Jose, a South Korea-based conglomerate that also paid $64 million in June for the iconic downtown Westin San Jose, also known as the Sainte Claire Hotel….

Los Angeles Business Journal 12/01/17 Hotel Heat Makes Old Buildings Cool By Caroline Anderson http://labusinessjournal.com/news/2017/dec/01/hotel-heat-makes-old-buildings-cool/ Developers are fashioning historic old buildings into new hotels to accommodate the record numbers of visitors flocking to Los Angeles these days. It’s a strategy that comes with challenges and potential benefits, including tax credits in some cases and the chance at prime locations. A passion for a design challenge and history drove real estate investor and developer Blvd Hospitality to renovate the Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles in 2014, said Jon Blanchard, founder and chief executive of the firm. Blvd Hospitality undertook the project as part-owner of the property on the 1000 block of S. Broadway, one the edge of the Fashion District. “There’s something really special and unique to be able to take a historic icon and bring it back to life,” said Blanchard. The firm converted the 13-story structure, which was built as a United Artists movie studio and theater in 1927, into a 182-room hotel and theater. Blanchard declined to share the price of the Ace’s overhaul, but Blvd and the hotel’s majority owner, Weston, Conn.-based Greenfield Partners, sold it for $103 million the year after the renovation. That amounted to…

Orange County Business Journal 11/06/17 $50M in Hotel Buys Hint at Past, Present HOSPITALITY: Sales at Dyer & 55 Are Midscale Trend Marker By Paul Hughes http://www.ocbj.com/news/2017/nov/06/50m-hotel-buys-hint-past-present   George Santayana said those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it, but sometimes that’s not so bad. Two recent Santa Ana hotel sales totaling $50 million point to the power of even nondescript local legacy submarkets, a hospitality trend-line that emerges about every 10 years, and the history of hotels and Orange County land development. CoStar Group Inc. records show Hampton Inn & Suites Santa Ana/Orange County Airport sold for $21 million in September and Holiday Inn Santa Ana-Orange County Airport sold for $28.5 million in August. Hampton’s 121 rooms went for $162,000 per key. It last sold in March 2013 for $16.5 million. Holiday Inn’s 176 rooms sold for $173,000 apiece. It last sold in June 2002 for $12.1 million. They’re part of seven properties off the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway at Dyer Road—the towering and terraced 300-room Embassy Suites by Hilton being the most visible—as cars whiz by on the way to John Wayne Airport, downtown Irvine, OC beaches or Disneyland Resort. Big names involved here…

San Francisco Business Times 10/24/17 From One Chairman of the Board to Another, Ellison Buys Tahoe Resort Once Owned by Sinatra By Marlize van Romburgh https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2017/10/24/larry-ellison-cal-neva-tahoe-resort-sinatra-hotels.html   Bay Area billionaire Larry Ellison is getting ready to buy a historic but rundown Lake Tahoe resort once owned by Frank Sinatra, the Sacramento Bee reports. The founder and chairman of Oracle Corp. will pay $35.8 million to buy the Cal Neva Resort & Casino out of bankruptcy, according to the Bee. He was the only bidder for the aging hotel and casino, which has gone through a series of ownership changes since its star-studded Sinatra days. Seller Criswell-Radovan LLC closed the resort in September 2013 for renovations but declared bankruptcy last year. The property has sat vacant and in disrepair for the last four years. It’s not Ellison’s first move into the hospitality business: He bought the Hawaiian island of Lanai in 2012 for an estimated $500 million, including the island’s two resorts developed by Dole Pineapple billionaire David Murdock. He also owns the 246-acre Porcupine Creek estate in the California desert, a property he bought for some $43 million in 2010, as well as other hotels and luxury estates around Tahoe…

The Orange County Register 10/07/17 Southern California Still a Growing Tourist Area By Jonathan Lansner http://www.ocregister.com/2017/10/06/southern-california-still-a-growing-tourist-trap   Southern California’s tourism trade looks to be enjoying a relatively solid 2017. Industry stats show busy local airports, hotels a bit challenged by an increase of rooms to fill, and leisure and hospitality bosses continue to hire. Tourism’s days of hot expansion out of the recession may be over. Yet the year’s modest progress isn’t shabby considering the numerous challenges from wobbly economic prospects limiting business travel to international tensions trimming foreign visits to the anticipation of Disneyland’s upcoming Star Wars attraction, which may delay some trips. Here’s a look at three key yardsticks of the region’s tourism trade … Busy skies Why does your favorite local airport seem so crowded? Don’t blame security checks as it’s been a busy year so far for Southern California airports. According to data from the six major airports, 62.9 million passengers went through the area’s terminals in 2017’s first seven months, up 2.8 million in a year or a gain of 4.7 percent. Much of that regional passenger gain occurred at giant Los Angeles International. Its 37.1 million passengers were up 1.2 million year to date,…