Atlas in the news

San Francisco Business Times 01/26/17 After No Major Hotel Openings in 2016, San Francisco Set to Open Four in 2017 By Renee Frojo http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2017/01/26/hotel-construction-hospitality-bay-area-rick-swig.html The Bay Area’s hotly anticipated hospitality boom will finally become reality this year, as a slew of new hotels open. Across the Bay Area, 10 new hotels are gearing up to welcome guests before December, adding an estimated 1,774 rooms to the market from San Francisco to Menlo Park. They include a mix of boutique, luxury and select-service properties with a wide range of amenities and trendy technologies. According to a report from Atlas Hospitality Group, no major hotels opened in San Francisco in 2016 and only one major property (with 174 rooms) opened in 2015. In San Francisco, hotels coming online this year are mostly clustered around SoMa and Mid-Market. While none of the projects are the big conference hotels the city desperately needs, according to hotel consultant Rick Swig, they will still bring more outsiders to neighborhood in transition…

San Diego Business Journal 01/25/17 Report: County Saw 43 Percent Boost in New Hotel Room Development in 2016 By Lou Hirsh http://sdbj.com/news/2017/jan/25/report-county-saw-43-percent-boost-new-hotel-room-/ San Diego County added more than 1,000 new hotel rooms to its inventory during 2016, an increase of 43 percent from the number added in 2015, according to the latest year-end California hotel development survey from brokerage and research firm Atlas Hospitality Group. The report said San Diego County added six hotels with 1,017 rooms during 2016, up from the six hotels with 711 rooms opened in the prior year. The local region’s largest hotel to open during 2016 was the 253-room SpringHill Suites by Marriott in downtown San Diego, which is part of a dual-brand property that also includes a 147-room Residence Inn by Marriott on the former site of the Lane Field ballpark. Atlas officials said there are currently eight hotels with 1,444 rooms under construction in San Diego County, the largest of which is the 400-room InterContinental San Diego, underway in the second phase of the Lane Field development. The county at the end of 2016 had 72 other hotels with 14,981 rooms in various planning stages, a 34 percent room count increase from a…

The Orange County Register 01/16/17 Hotel Industry in O.C. Off to Solid Start with New Deals in the Works By Hannah Madans http://www.ocregister.com/articles/hotel-741317-pacifica-hotels.html   It didn’t take long for the local hospitality industry to take off in the new year. Irvine-based Pacifica Hotels announced last week it had assumed operations of an iconic hotel in Santa Monica; the Irvine Marriott introduced a redesign; and developers of a hotel in San Juan Capistrano said it would open by next summer. Pacifica has assumed management of The Georgian Hotel, a retro-style, blue-and-yellow building across the street from the Santa Monica Pier. The hotel has 84 rooms and a restaurant with sweeping ocean views. The hotel, at 1415 Ocean Ave., is being renovated. Upgrades to the restaurant, bar, common areas and meeting rooms will debut in the spring, the company said. “It’s architectural integrity, coastal location, boutique style and hospitality-first ethos makes it a model addition to Pacifica Hotels portfolio,” Matt Marquis, president and CEO of Pacifica Hotels, said in a statement. Pacifica also sold the 80-room Sommerset Suites in San Diego for $19.5 million. The hotel was sold to Sentre Partners. The hotel was initially built as an apartment complex in 1986…

San Diego Business Journal 01/11/17 Hillcrest Hotel Being Converted to Apartments By Lou Hirsh http://sdbj.com/news/2017/jan/11/hillcrest-hotel-being-converted-apartments/   A Sommerset Suites Hotel in Hillcrest is slated to become a boutique apartment community after the property was recently purchased by San Diego-based SENTRE Partners. The price on the deal – not immediately disclosed by the parties – was $19.5 million, according to title documents obtained by brokerage and research firm Atlas Hospitality Group, which was not involved in the transaction. A statement from brokerage firm Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP (HFF), which represented the buyer, said SENTRE Partners plans to convert the building at 606 Washington St. into an 80-unit apartment property called The Whitson. Media reports indicate that the hotel was most recently owned by Irvine-based Pacifica Hotels and was closed as of Jan. 4. According to CoStar Group, the building was originally constructed on 0.8 acres in 1986. HFF said the property was originally designed as a boutique apartment community, and the sellers converted it into a hotel in the mid-1990s, leaving most of the apartment amenities intact, including a pool and spa, barbecue area, dining room and business center. Brokers said The Whitson will include studio and one-bedroom apartments with 96…

Bisnow 01/09/17 7 Hotels Opened in the OC Last Year with More to Come By Karen Jordan https://www.bisnow.com/orange-county/news/hotel/seven-hotels-opened-in-the-oc-last-year-with-more-to-come-69566   Hotel development was big in Orange County in 2016 and even more hotels are expected this year. Seven hotels opened, of which four were in the Anaheim Resort District, according to Irvine’s Atlas Hospitality Group. A total of 19 hotels sold last year for a combined $222.2M, the Orange County Register reports. One of the bigger deals included the 224-room Crowne Plaza Costa Mesa, which sold for $37.5M. Eleven hotels are set to open this year, according to Atlas.

Los Angeles Business Journal 01/06/17 Golden Globes Turns Up Shine at Beverly Hilton On Roll in Hollywood By Diane Haithman http://labusinessjournal.com/news/2017/jan/06/roll-hollywood/   What does the weather have to do with dessert? At the Golden Globe Awards, scheduled for Jan. 8 at the Beverly Hilton, a sunny day can wreak havoc on the sweets course at the lavish preshow dinner in the International Ballroom. Just ask Beverly Hilton executive pastry chef Thomas Henzi, who’s in charge of a 12-member team scheduled to spend the Friday and Saturday before the awards creating 30,000 individual pastries for the dinner and many ancillary parties at the hotel. “When the weather is good, the celebrities spend more time outside on the red carpet and end up with only 10 minutes to eat,” said Henzi at this week’s official unveiling of the menu for the 74th annual Golden Globes. “When it’s cold, we prepare more desserts.” That’s just a small part of the massive logistical undertaking of planning the hotel’s biggest red-carpet event among the roughly 200 it hosts each year, said Manager Michael Robertson. Sunday night’s Globes would mark the 46th time the Beverly Hilton has hosted the Hollywood event and the 42nd consecutive year…

12/29/16 The Orange County Register By Hannah Madans Orange County Saw 7 Hotels Open in 2016, with More on the Way in 2017 http://www.ocregister.com/articles/hotel-739777-hotels-room.html   Hotel development in the county saw another year of growth as properties opened, changed hands or underwent massive renovations. Seven hotels opened, according to Irvine-based Atlas Hospitality Group. Of the seven, four were in the Anaheim Resort District. Deals continued a hot streak, with 19 hotels selling for a combined $222.22 million. That’s down from $1.749 billion in deals for 27 hotels in 2015. Last year’s high number was partly a result of the Montage Laguna Beach resort being sold twice. Big hotel deals included the 306-room Hilton Irvine/Orange County Airport hotel, which sold for $80 million, and the 224-room Crowne Plaza Costa Mesa, which went for $37.5 million. Eleven hotels are scheduled to open next year, according to Atlas. “There has been a huge jump in new construction of hotels in Orange County and throughout California. This is mainly due to the increase in values of existing older hotel product, which has made it more viable to look at adding new rooms for hotel owners instead of purchasing existing hotels,” Atlas President Alan Reay…

The San Diego Union-Tribune 12/09/16 Mission Valley’s Hanalei Hotel Is Sold By Lori Weisberg http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/sd-fi-hanalei-sale-20161209-story.html   The Crowne Plaza Hanalei, one of Mission Valley’s oldest hotels, has sold for nearly $49 million. Built in 1959 and last renovated in 2006, the 419-room property was sold to a private client of Irvine-based Brighton Management, which manages hotels in California, Colorado, Florida, Connecticut and New Mexico. The only other San Diego County hotels in its portfolio are National City and a Holiday Inn in Oceanside. Brighton plans to undertake a significant renovation of the aging 10-acre property but is not far enough along to provide more details on the scope or investment, said special account manager David Wei. The seller, Hanalei Associates, which has Multi-Ventures, Inc. as its managing member, originally purchased the hotel in 1996 for $14.6 million. “I’ve been in the hotel business for 30-plus years and I simply decided it was in my best interest to get out of the business,” said Robert Payne, CEO of Multi-Ventures a real estate development and hotel company that previously owned the Mission Valley Hilton. “I saw it as an opportunity for new ownership to take over and expand the facility and I…

Silicon Valley Business Journal 12/05/16 New High-end Hotel Brand Arrives in Silicon Valley By Bryce Druzin http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2016/12/05/new-high-end-hotel-brand-arrives-in-silicon-valley.html   A new hotel brand has taken over the former site of Beverly Heritage Hotel in Milpitas. The 236-room hotel is now Sonesta Silicon Valley. Sonesta International Hotels Corp. has more than 60 hotels in seven countries, including 37 in the United States, but the Milpitas location at 1820 Barber Lane is their first hotel on the West Coast. “We’ve had aspirations on California for a long time,” said Carlos Flores, Sonesta president and CEO. “Silicon Valley being a very unique market in a very fruitful economy, overall from a business perspective it makes it a very good outpost.” Sonesta competes with luxury brand hotels, according to Alan X. Reay of Atlas Hospitality Group, a hotel consultancy. Reay described the brand as “slightly below” Ritz Carlton and Four Seasons and said the Milpitas hotel will compete against full-service Marriotts and Hiltons. Reay said the biggest challenge Sonesta’s newest location faces is a lack of name recognition in the California market. Hospitality Properties Trust, a publicly traded REIT that buys and leases out hotels to brands, owns the property. According to a Q2 2016…

Los Angeles Times 11/01/16 Beverly Hills Squeezes Chinese Hotel Builder for Big Bucks Instead of Offering a Handout By Michael Hiltzik http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-wanda-payout-20161101-story.html   The tradition in real estate development in recent years has gone something like this: Developer proposes mega-project, developer claims project will transform city into something great, city gives developer millions in tax abatements and other handouts to make the deal happen. Beverly Hills may just have turned the payout spigot the other way. In a tentative deal announced late last week, the Chinese firm Wanda Group agreed to increase its fees to the city by more than a half-billion dollars over 30 years to win approval of a luxury condo-hotel project near the corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards. Everyone involved in the negotiations expresses satisfaction with the terms. “This is by far the best development agreement ever negotiated for Beverly Hills, and possibly the richest development agreement per square foot negotiated anywhere by a municipality,” said Mayor John Mirisch, who reached the agreement as one of two members of the city’s ad hoc committee examining the project. His colleague on the committee, Councilwoman Lili Bosse, agrees. And Rohan a’Beckett, Wanda’s manager at the project, calls…

Los Angeles Journal 10/31/16 Beverly Hills Outlines Lucrative Development Deal with Wanda Group By Daina Beth Solomon http://labusinessjournal.com/news/2016/oct/31/beverly-hills-outlines-lucrative-development-deal-/   Chinese developer Wanda Group is poised to pay mega-bucks to the City of Beverly Hills in an unprecedented development deal for the construction of its elite condo-hotel project, One Beverly Hills. The agreement, which awaits City Council approval, would require Wanda to pay the city an extra tax on top of the standard transit occupancy tax for its 134 hotel rooms. Wanda would also pay a percentage of sales on its 193 condos, plus $60 million in upfront fees. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Alan Reay, Atlas Hospitality Group president. “It is diametrically opposed to what’s going on in almost every other city in California… In downtown, they’re giving away huge tax rebates to entice hotel developers.” Not so in posh Beverly Hills, where a war is raging between two rival condo-hotel developments – One Beverly Hills from Wanda, and Waldorf Astoria from Beny Alagem’s Oasis West Realty. Beverly Hills Mayor John Mirish has said he supports Wanda for taking the painstaking planning steps through city council. The Beijing-based company purchased the site, a former Robinsons-May department store, in…