Atlas in the news

The San Diego Union-Tribune 08/11/17 Lender Takes Possession of Park Hyatt Aviara By Lori Weisberg http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/tourism/sd-fi-parkhyatt-aviara-20170811-story.html   Carlsbad’s luxury resort, Park Hyatt Aviara, has been taken over by its lender following a years-long struggle by its previous owners to repay debt that was coming due… …The 2011 loan extension expired in February of this year. “This is not a reflection that the hotel market was bad, it was a reflection that the owner paid too much and the debt was too high,” said Alan Reay, president of Orange County-based Atlas Hospitality Group. “The lender at one time had realized it was in their interest to cut the interest rate and work it out with the borrowers, but when the loan came due, the special servicer decided to not extend it any further and take the property back. And you have the borrower saying I’m not going to fight it.” The 200-acre resort was at the center of a very public feud in 2009 when Broadreach sought to oust the hotel’s longtime operator, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. Although Broadreach had tried to immediately remove Four Seasons, contending that it had failed to run the property in a “cost-effective manner,” the…

Forbes / Bisnow 08/10/17 California Leads the Nation for Q2 Hotel Sales Even as Sector Slows By Karen Jordan https://www.forbes.com/sites/bisnow/2017/08/11/california-leads-the-nation-for-q2-hotel-sales-even-as-sector-slows/#41fb90b35ba1   While the nation’s hotel deals have slowed in the first half of this year after several years of rising sales, some markets continue to do well. California was the nation’s most active market for hotel deals in Q2. California had 10 major hotel sales in Q2, according to a recent LW Hospitality Advisors Q2 2017 Major U.S. Hotel Sales Survey, which focused on major single asset transactions of $10M and above. Florida came in second with nine deals in the quarter. Particular cities stood out, including Atlanta with four deals and San Jose, which had three. LW Hospitality Advisors President and CEO Daniel Lesser said coastal cities, like those in California, have advantages in the current market. California had deals totaling around $2.8B in Q2, including about 11,600 hotel rooms with an average per room sale price of $244K, according to the survey. “California is a coastal location. Similar to East Coast locations like New York, coastal cities tend to be highly desirable for investors,” Lesser said. “California, generally speaking, it’s safe to say it’s probably harder to develop…

Orange County Business Journal 08/10/17 Hotel Sales Mid-Year Tally: $372M By Paul Hughes http://www.ocbj.com/news/2017/aug/09/hotel-sales-mid-year-sales-tally-372m   16 OC hotels sold for more $372 million in the first six months of the year—an average of $23.3 million and 201% higher by dollar volume than in the same period last year. The tally for the first half of 2016 was just $123.7 million on 14 deals—an average of $9.5 million per sale. Data is from a mid-year sales report by hotel broker and consultant Atlas Hospitality Group in Irvine. The 16 hotels sold comprise more than 1,800 rooms, compared with about 890 year-over-year, and the price-per-room rose about 15% to top $202,700, compared with $177,100 last year. The big increase in room count and dollar value on just two additional sales point to larger hotels being sold this year, headlined by more marquee deals. The largest and most expensive sale so far this year in OC was the $125 million paid in February for the 444-room Fairmont Newport Beach, a price-per-room of $282,000. Aliso Viejo-based hotel REIT Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc. sold the hotel, a few blocks from John Wayne Airport, to a China-based owner working through Infinity Realty Advisors in Los Angeles….

HotelNewsNow 07/31/17 California Remains Popular, Challenging for Development By Bryan Wroten http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/158190/California-remains-popular-challenging-for-development   REPORT FROM THE U.S.—Hotel development in California continues on at an increasing rate. Atlas Hospitality Group’s California Hotel Development Survey for mid-year 2017 shows the number of hotel openings jumped 53% year over year. So far this year, the California market has seen 15% more new hotels and 6% more rooms under construction compared to mid-year 2016. In the planning phase, the market reported 773 hotels (a 37% increase over 2016) with 113,973 rooms (a 35% increase). The average size of hotels opening is 130 to 140 rooms, said Alan Reay, president of Atlas, and a vast majority of them are branded under Marriott International, Hilton or Hyatt Hotels Corporation. They typically cost more than $100,000 a key, he said. San Francisco is an area with huge barriers to entry, he said, but the city recently changed zoning in a large section of the city that will allow light industrial, commercial and hospitality construction. “We might see in San Francisco what we have seen in downtown Los Angeles over the last 24 months,” Reay said. Downtown LA is one of a few areas that can handle higher…

Santa Cruz Sentinel 07/26/17 Santa Cruz Hotels Hot: Lexington, Hyatt Place to Open Soon; Six in the Pipeline By Jondi Gumz http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/business/20170726/santa-cruz-hotels-hot-lexington-hyatt-place-to-open-soon-six-in-the-pipeline   SANTA CRUZ >> Santa Cruz County’s hotel sector is hot, with a trend of owners tearing down older properties to build new ones. Three hotels with 390 rooms are under construction right now, and six more hotels with 519 rooms are in the pipeline, according to Alan Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group, which tracks the industry. Michael Tansy, a partner in the 128-room Lexington Hotel at 5030 Scotts Valley Drive, Scotts Valley, said he expects the hotel to open by September. JP Construction of La Selva Beach began construction of the $21 million project in March 2015. At that time, completion was expected in 16 months. Tansy explained via email to the Sentinel that the project was upgraded from a midprice market brand to an upscale hotel, necessitating changes to the interior design. The 106-room Hyatt Place, a $25.4 million project at 107 Broadway a block from Ocean Street in Santa Cruz, is taking reservations for Sept. 1. A standard king bed room with sofabed is available for $259, according to the hotel’s website. Reay said…

The Mercury News 07/26/17 San Jose Hotels Moving Ahead, Revived with New Financing By George Avalos http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/07/26/san-jose-hotels-moving-ahead-revived-with-new-financing-google-cisco   SAN JOSE — Developers are pushing ahead in north San Jose with an unusual lodging concept: a complex with two hotel brands that would share a common lobby. Together, the two hotels would bring 261 new lodging rooms to a section of north San Jose that is a short distance from the headquarters of some of Silicon Valley’s biggest tech companies, including Google, as well as the Levi Stadium sports complex and California’s Great America amusement park. The development would consist of a 147-room Residence Inn and a 114-room Fairfield Inn & Suites, both operating under the Marriott brand. What’s unusual about this development is the two hotels would share a lobby and other common areas. Saratoga-based InfiniPower Hospitality Group is developing the complex. Each hotel would each be four stories high. “This would be a new concept,” said Devang Shah, founder and principal executive with InfiniPower Hospitality. “Marriott and some other hotel chains are promoting this co-branding approach. You will have two hotels in one building. They would share the public spaces, the front desk, the food and beverage areas and…

Bisnow 07/24/17 California Experiences Hotel Boom in First Half of 2017 By Karen Jordan https://www.bisnow.com/orange-county/news/construction-development/la-76859   California has seen a hotel boom so far this year. The number of new hotels that opened statewide in the first half of the year increased 53%. There were also 15% more hotels in development and 6% more under construction compared to the first half of last year, according to a study by the Atlas Hospitality Group. A record number of hotel rooms opened in the first six months of the year. Twenty-six hotels, with 4,730 rooms, opened in the first half of 2017 compared to 17 hotels in the same period of 2016. Three hotels with 461 rooms opened in Orange County, the Orange County Register reports. The hotel supply in Los Angeles had little change, but four of the five biggest hotels to open in California in the first half of the year were in the city, TravelWeekly reports. Atlas President Alan Reay said many hotels are being built now because the price of renovating older hotels is high, making it more attractive to build a new hotel, and construction financing and loans are readily available and there have been six years…

San Diego Business Journal 07/13/17 New San Diego Hotel Opens, With Plenty More on the Way By Lou Hirsh http://sdbj.com/news/2017/jul/13/new-san-diego-hotel-opens-plenty-more-way   San Diego — San Diego’s newest hotel is a 245-room Homewood Suites by Hilton, which recently opened at 2201 Hotel Circle South in Mission Valley and is managed by Evolution Hospitality of San Clemente. The property is owned by Newport Beach-based T2 Hospitality, led by founder and CEO Mike Patel, which has developed several hotels in the local market including the dual-branded Hilton campus that opened last year at the former Top’s Nightclub/Fat City site near Little Italy. The new venue arrived as Atlas Hospitality Group recently reported that San Diego County saw a 96 percent increase from a year ago in the number of hotel rooms under construction in the first half of 2017. In the brokerage and consulting firm’s mid-year California hotel development survey, Atlas noted that the local region had 10 hotels with 1,880 rooms under construction at the year’s mid-point, and another 76 hotels with 15,179 rooms in various planning stages. San Diego County saw the opening of two hotels with a total of 433 rooms in the first half, including the 317-room Pendry San…

The Orange County Register 07/18/17 Record Number of California Hotel Rooms Open in First Half of 2017 By Hannah Madans   Record number of California hotel rooms open in first half of 2017 The number of new hotels that opened in California increased 53 percent in the first half of 2017 and there were 15 percent more hotels in development and 6 percent more under construction vs. the same period in 2016, according to an Atlas Hospitality Group study. “This is a record number of hotel rooms that have opened in the first six months of the year,” said Alan Reay, president of Irvine-based Atlas. Twenty-six hotels, with 4,730 rooms, opened in the first half of 2017 vs. 17 hotels in the same period of 2016. Reay said many hotels are being built now because the price of buying and renovating older hotels is high, that it is more attractive to build a new hotel, construction financing and loans are readily available and there have been six years of revenue increases. In Orange County three hotels with 461 rooms opened during the first half of the year. They were: AC Hotel Irvine: The 176-room hotel in the Park Place development…

Travel Weekly 07/12/17 2017 a Big Year for California Hotel Openings By Danny King http://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Hotel-News/2017-a-big-year-for-California-hotel-openings   California has shattered its record for hotel rooms opened during the first half of a year. Developers opened 26 hotels totaling 4,730 rooms from January to June, a 53% increase for hotels and a 65% surge for rooms from a year earlier, according to hotel real estate broker Atlas Hospitality Group. The previous record for new rooms was 2,502 with the 33 hotels that opened during the first half of 2008. Four of the state’s five largest new hotels are in Los Angeles, including the 889-room InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown and the 350-room Hotel Indigo. The 317-room Pendry San Diego is the state’s third-largest new hotel. Hotel developers have been looking to meet surging demand in Southern California. Last year, revenue per available room (RevPAR) in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area rose 11%, the fastest demand-growth rate out of the largest 25 U.S. hotel markets, according to data research firm STR. Meanwhile, Los Angeles’ hotel supply was little-changed last year after inching up 0.5% in 2015. As for the entire state, there were 18,271 rooms under construction as of June 30, up 6% from…

Orange County Business Journal 07/10/17 Hotel Construction Down; Planning Up By Paul Hughes https://www.ocbj.com/news/2017/jul/10/hotel-construction-down-planning   The number of hotels and rooms under construction in Orange County as of the end of June declined year-over-year but the number of hotels and rooms in planning is up. OC has eight hotels with about 1,200 rooms under construction at the year’s midpoint; at the end of June 2016 there were 12 hotels with about 2,100 rooms under construction—declines of 50% and 43%, respectively. The county has 50 hotels and 10,500 rooms in planning—up 47% and 55%, respectively. The largest hotel under construction here is Marriott Irvine Spectrum, a project of R.D. Olson Development in Newport Beach. The mid-year development numbers are from consultant and broker Atlas Hospitality Group in Irvine. “The general picture is that development—planning [plus] construction—is up in every area of California,” said Alan Reay, Atlas president. Hotel sales prices have risen so much in “the sixth year of a strong hotel market,” he said, “it’s more attractive to build.” If the price of a 30-year-old hotel is the same as the cost of building a new one, Reay said, you make it new. Atlas’ report said “favorable construction financing” is…

Los Angeles Times 07/08/17 With Retractable Pool and Tao Restaurant, Flashy Dream Hotel Anchors New Hollywood Revival By Roger Vincent http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-dream-hotel-hollywood-20170708-story.html   From top to bottom, the futuristic-looking Dream Hotel tries hard to live up to its name. The centerpiece of a $110-million hospitality complex, it features a front lobby and bar that will open entirely onto the street — providing a new way to enjoy an indoor-outdoor experience in Southern California… …The development is part of an overall hotel construction surge in the state, according to consulting firm Atlas Hospitality Group. There were 130 hotels with a combined 18,271 rooms under construction at the end of June, a 17% increase over the same period last year, Atlas said. Los Angeles County leads the way with 4,585 rooms. But for all the demand, getting the Dream Hotel to market wasn’t easy. The developers secured city approvals in 2008, but then the financial crisis hit…