Atlas in the news

The Orange County Register 03/12/16 Strategic Hotels Sold to Chinese Insurance Company for $6.5 Billion By staff and wire reports http://www.ocregister.com/articles/hotel-707955-hotels-strategic.html LOS ANGELES – Blackstone Group has agreed to sell Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc., owner of Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel and the Montage Laguna Beach, to a Chinese insurance company for $6.5 billion, The Associated Press reported, citing a person familiar with the deal. The agreement with Beijing-based Anbang Insurance Group comes about three months after the private equity firm completed its acquisition of the hotel operator. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity Saturday because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the deal, could not immediately say how much of the $6.5 billion deal value includes debt. Blackstone completed its acquisition of Strategic Hotels in December. That deal was valued at $3.93 billion, or about $6 billion including debt. Strategic’s $360 million January 2015 purchase of the 250-room Montage Laguna Beach, from Ohana Real Estate Investors, was at the time the biggest hotel sale in California history. A spokeswoman for Blackstone declined to comment Saturday. An email to a media representative at Anbang was not immediately returned. Alan Reay, president of hotel consultant and broker Atlas…

Silicon Valley Business Journal 03/10/16 Milpitas Selling Land to Hotel Developer; Expert Calls It a Great Site but Pricey Deal http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2016/03/10/milpitas-selling-land-to-hotel-developer-expert.html   A Utah-based hospitality group is poised to pick up a 3.3-acre site in Milpitas that’s in the thick of corporate campuses and highly-trafficked roads, and it has Gov. Jerry Brown to thank for it. Lodging Dynamics is slated to buy the land, currently a vacant parcel, from Milpitas’s Successor Agency to the Redevelopment Agency, which was set up to dispose of the assets of the city’s former Redevelopment Agency. Cities all over the state have been selling off their agencies’ holdings following Brown’s 2011 order that wound down redevelopment. The Milpitas City Council next Tuesday is expected to sign off on the $7 million sale. The site is located at the intersection of East Tasman Drive and Barber Lane, just off Interstate 880 at the Tasman Drive/Great Mall exit. It’s adjacent to a VTA parking lot for the Milpitas Station. Assistant City Manager Emma Karlen told me that the land has long been envisioned for a hotel, and represents the most significant parcel from a development perspective among the five sites that the Successor Agency is selling off….

The Orange County Register 03/01/16 Huntington Beach Hilton to Undergo $140 Million Expansion, Adding New Tower By Hannah Madans http://www.ocregister.com/articles/beach-706366-resort-waterfront.html   The Waterfront Beach Resort, a Hilton property in Huntington Beach, has completed a $140 million financing deal to add a suites-only tower. Irvine-based Robert Mayer Corp. owns the 290-room resort. The changes will include a nine-story, 152 room all-suites resort tower, a restaurant, ocean-view lounge, pool deck and event lawn on an adjacent 3.5-acre parcel south of the existing hotel. The project lender is Newport Beach-based Pacific Life Insurance Co. Davis Reed Construction Inc. will be the builder. Existing public spaces also will undergo a makeover. The pool and pool deck will be rebuilt and a grab-and-go market will be added. The project is expected to take about 18 months to complete. “The expansion of The Waterfront Beach Resort will enable us to enhance our services and accommodations, and expand our contribution to tourism in Surf City USA, Huntington Beach, California,” said Robert L. Mayer, Jr., Chairman of The Mayer Corporation, in a statement. The Waterfront Beach Resort is located at 21100 Pacific Coast Highway, just across the street from the Paséa Hotel & Spa, a much anticipated high-end…

The San Diego Union-Tribune 02/29/16 Hotel Sales Flat, Values Way Up By Lori Weisberg http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/feb/29/hotel-sales-down-california-values-rising/   The pace of hotel acquisitions last year may have slowed statewide, but the prices investors were willing to pay for established properties rose significantly, contributing to a record $9.5 billion in sales in California. The rising value of lodging real estate was especially evident in Southern California, which saw the number of hotel transactions drop by 9 percent compared to 2014 at the same time that the sales volume — $5.4 billion — soared by 69 percent, reported Atlas Hospitality Group, an Orange County-based brokerage that tracks hotel transactions throughout California…    

Orange County Business Journal 02/25/16 Hotel Sales Dollars Doubled in 2015 By Paul Hughes http://www.ocbj.com/news/2016/feb/25/hotel-sales-dollars-doubled-2015/   Fewer hotels sold for more money last year in Orange County. Twenty-seven hotels sold in 2015—down by three properties from 2014—but they traded hands for $1.75 billion—up 115% from the previous year’s $816 million, according to numbers from Irvine-based Atlas Hospitality Group. Atlas said 2016 sales volume will fall about 25% from 2015 numbers as larger buyers pull back from the market and more hotels are available for purchase. The consultant and broker said financing would increase by up to 1 percentage point and it expects the median price per room to decline by up to 10%. The median price per room in Orange County last year was $135,000, an increase of about 12%. The average price per room was $271,000, up 64%. The $426 million deal for the Ritz‐Carlton, Laguna Niguel in Dana Point was the priciest local hotel buy in 2015. Orange County’s total dollar volume in 2015 was 18% of California’s $9.5 billion in hotel sales. “By any measure … it was a record‐breaking year,” Atlas said.

The Orange County Register 02/25/16 Pacifica Hotels Purchases Resort in Cambria By Hannah Madans http://www.ocregister.com/articles/pacifica-705718-hotel-resort.html   Irvine-based Pacifica Hotels has acquired the San Simeon Pines Seaside Resort in Cambria for an undisclosed sum. San Simeon Pines is located in central California near Hearst Castle and local wineries. The resort includes a private beach trail. The 9-acre resort has 60 guest rooms, a solar heated pool and is just steps from Moonstone Beach. It was originally built in 1959. Adam Marquis, executive vice president of Pacifica, said there will be guest room renovations in the spring. Alan Reay, president of Irvine-based real estate firm Atlas Hospitality Group said he expected Pacifica to “do a massive upgrade.” The group, he said, “controls most of the hotel product on Moonstone Beach in Cambria.” It’s been a busy year for Pacifica. In January the group acquired The Milner Hotel in downtown Los Angeles for an undisclosed price. Reay said the hotel would likely undergo major renovations and be converted to Pacifica’s Wayfarer brand. Wayfarer offers both hotel-style and dorm-style rooms with common areas. There is a Wayfarer in Santa Barbara. Pacifica owns and operates six properties on Cambria’s Moonstone Beach and a total of…

San Diego Business Journal 02/22/16 San Diego Firm Buys La Jolla Inn Hotel for $7.1 Million By Lou Hirsh http://sdbj.com/news/2016/feb/22/san-diego-firm-buys-la-jolla-inn-hotel-71-million/   Oceanic Cos. of San Diego has purchased the 23-room La Jolla Inn hotel in La Jolla for $7.1 million, according to CoStar Group and brokerage firm Atlas Hospitality Group. The seller was Interstate Holdings Inc. of San Diego. The hotel was built in 1947 at 1110 Prospect St. and has since been renovated. Atlas Hospitality Group’s Oliver Shah and Sachin Shah represented the buyer, and Oliver Shah also represented the seller.

San Diego Business Journal 02/22/16 San Diego County Continues to Boost Hotel Room Supply By Lou Hirsh http://sdbj.com/news/2016/feb/22/san-diego-county-continues-boost-hotel-room-supply/   San Diego County added 711 hotel rooms at six new properties in 2015, up 115 percent from new supply added in 2014, according to hotel brokerage and research firm Atlas Hospitality Group. In a newly released California development report, Irvine-based Atlas said the local region had 1,091 rooms under construction at the end of 2015. San Diego County has 48 hotels and 11,157 rooms in various stages of planning. The largest local hotel to open in 2015 was the 179-room Hilton Garden Inn Old Town San Diego. The largest currently under construction is the 317-room Pendry San Diego, in downtown’s Gaslamp Quarter. Atlas Hospitality Group President Alan Reay said California continues to see “very healthy” increases in revenue per available room (RevPAR), with many of the hotels opened in 2014 and 2015 operating at or exceeding forecasted budgets. “The big concern is whether we’re now overbuilding,” Reay said in the report. “Atlas doesn’t believe so, mainly due to the fact that a lot of the new supply is simply making up for the total lack of new hotel rooms from 2009-2013.”…

The San Diego Union-Tribune 02/20/16 San Diego in Midst of Hotel Building Boom By Lori Weisberg http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/feb/20/san-diego-in-midst-of-hotel-building-boom/   It was only six years ago that financial turmoil was roiling the county’s now thriving hotel industry. The iconic Hotel del Coronado was on the verge of defaulting on more than a half billion dollars in debt. San Diego’s then hippest hotel, the W, was in foreclosure. And a luxury downtown property that two years earlier boasted $600-a-night rooms was in bankruptcy. What followed was a years-long drought of new hotel rooms that is a drought no longer. Less than two months into the new year, a powerful resurgence in hotel values and revenues is fueling an El Niño-like deluge of development at a level not seen in at least eight years. From Oceanside to Chula Vista, more than 2,000 hotel rooms are under construction, and at least 7,400 more are in the pipeline, awaiting development approvals and construction permits. Two midrise properties within Liberty Station are under construction, as is a 300-room luxury hotel downtown, and a highrise on Lane Field is nearing completion. Further north, Oceanside has multiple mid-sized projects in various planning stages, while Legoland recently submitted a proposal…

Orange County Register 02/19/16 Developers Rush to Build Orange County Hotels By Jonathan Lanser http://www.ocregister.com/articles/hotels-704966-county-rooms.html   Orange County is in the middle of a hotel construction boom. Three hotels opened in Orange County last year, adding 606 rooms for visitors to choose from, after four hotels with 699 rooms opened in 2014, Atlas Hospitality reports. The largest hotel to open in 2015 was the 221-room Courtyard Anaheim Theme Park Entrance. This year will be even busier. Orange County has 12 hotels with 2,461 rooms scheduled to open as soon as this year, Atlas reported. The highlight of this building boom is the 603-room Great Wolf Lodge in Garden Grove, which opened Friday. In addition, Orange County has another 25 hotels with 4,234 rooms in various stages of planning. The building boom follows a sharp recovery for tourism. Room rates soared 31 percent in the last year years, according to CBRE Hotels. “We’re OK for the next couple of years,” says Alan Reay, Atlas president. “But lenders and buyers are now showing a little but of caution.” Hotel business fundamentals are strong, and it should stay that way throughout 2016, Reay says. Record profits lured developers back into building hotels, as…