Atlas in the news

Report: California Hotel Development Rebounds, Led by Landmark Openings in Southern Counties

After several years of subdued activity, California’s hotel development market is showing renewed momentum in 2025, highlighted by a surge in new openings and a major milestone in hospitality construction. According to a mid-year report from Atlas Hospitality Group, 36 hotels opened in the first half of 2025, up 64 percent from the same period in 2024, with total room count rising by 135 percent—from 2,289 to 5,369 rooms. The standout contributor to this growth was the 1,600-room Gaylord Pacific Resort in Chula Vista, which alone accounted for more than half of the increase in total rooms. “We have seen 64 percent more hotels opened up as compared to last year, with 135 percent more rooms,” said Alan X. Reay, president of Newport Beach-based Atlas Hospitality Group. “The 1,600-room Gaylord Pacific Resort in Chula Vista is the largest hotel to open in 2025, and it is also the largest hotel to open in California in the last thirty-three years.”  Despite this resurgence in openings, future supply appears to be moderating. The number of hotels currently under construction fell by 19.5 percent to 99 projects, while total rooms dropped 21 percent from 15,542 in 2024 to 12,213 in 2025. Analysts note…

Are San Francisco values bottoming out?

By Rob Schneider & Jeffrey Weinstein | July 14, 2025 Experts say there are great deals in the Bay Area, but they will require patience as the market makes its years-long recovery.  SAN FRANCISCO — With several notable defaults, sales and foreclosures in the Bay Area over the past year, hotel investors are asking when values will bottom out and what kind of hold time will dealmaking require? Experts told Hotel Investment Today that San Francisco and Oakland are in very different positions, with the former in the process of making an “amazing turnaround” but not without long-term valuation consequences. “[For San Francisco] the good news is things are really looking up and turning around. The bad news is it’s not like a one- or two-year turnaround,” said Rob Stiles, founding principal and managing director of RobertDouglas. “This is going to take some time, but it’s exciting that the turn is happening and some people are going to make some really smart buys. But it’s going to be on a completely reset table on valuation.” News came last week of the most recent default in the area, the 500-key Oakland Marriott City Center, which is the largest hotel in the city’s downtown. The owners, Los…

Gaylord Pacific opening helps set record for San Diego hotel development

While the opening of the mega bayfront resort in Chula Vista is a bright spot, hotel development in San Diego is expected to decline By Lori Weisberg | The San Diego Union-Tribune UPDATED: July 14, 2025 at 1:05 PM PDT Amid a continued slowdown in hotel development, the first half of 2025 was a standout for one reason only — the opening of the 1,600-room Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center, which marked the largest hotel to open in California in the past 33 years, according to a newly released hospitality real estate report. The net effect, for both San Diego and the state as a whole, is that the massive Chula Vista bayfront project skewed the number of hotel rooms that opened during the first half of this year, compared to a year earlier. In San Diego County, three hotels, accounting for a total of 1,699 rooms, officially opened their doors through June 30, which represents an 849% increase over the same period last year, when a 179-room hotel in Chula Vista was the only new property to open in the county, reports Atlas Hospitality Group. The only other two hotels to open this year were the 40-room Bower in Coronado and…

California hotel openings pick up the pace in first half of 2025

New Gaylord Pacific Resort boosts room openings count With 1,600 keys, the Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center in Chula Vista is the largest hotel to open in California during the first half of the year. (CoStar) By Bryan Wroten | CoStar News | July 11, 2025 | 6:38 AM The number of hotel openings in California grew during the first half of the year, and a large part of that is thanks to one hotel. Atlas Hospitality Group’s California Hotel Development Survey 2025 Mid-Year reports that 36 hotels opened during the first six months of 2025, a 64% year-over-year increase. The number of new rooms added during that time was 5,369, up 135% compared to last year. Of those rooms, 1,600 came from the Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center that opened in May in Chula Vista. This property alone accounted for 52% of the 135% increase of new rooms added year over year. The Gaylord property is the biggest hotel to open in California in 33 years, Atlas President Alan Reay said. “I think that in itself speaks volumes about people’s desire, and perhaps even more so the city’s desires to help fund that kind of project,” he said. While the Gaylord opening certainly…

Big Oakland hotel is seized by lender as Bay Area lodging market fades

Hotel is an East Bay landmark By George Avalos | gavalos@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News GroupUPDATED: July 9, 2025 at 11:46 AM PDT OAKLAND — A lender has taken ownership of Oakland’s biggest hotel through a foreclosure that underscores the ailments and price nosedives that plague the Bay Area’s sickly lodging market. The Oakland Marriott City Center hotel was taken back by its lender, which bought the property for just under $70.2 million through the foreclosure. Default Resolution Network, which handled the foreclosure proceeding, provided the results of the transaction. Invesco CMI Investments filed the default against the hotel. Invesco CMI bought the loan in May 2024 from the original lender, Nataxis New York Branch, according to documents on file with the Alameda County Recorder’s Office. The loan that was foreclosed totaled $100 million, county documents show. The 500-room lodging tower, which has a choice location at 1001 Broadway next to the city’s convention center, is Oakland’s largest hotel. Numerous other hotels in the Bay Area have encountered loan defaults, foreclosures, and a plunge in their value as the region’s lodging sector struggles to convalesce from its coronavirus-linked economic maladies. “We are seeing a downturn in business travel for the Bay Area that is continuing post-COVID,”…

LVMH to Sell Santa Barbara’s El Encanto Hotel for $82.2 Million

By John Gittelsohn | July 7, 2025 at 1:00 PM PDT French luxury giant LVMH Moët Hennessey Louis Vuitton SE is selling its only US hotel, the El Encanto in Santa Barbara, California. The 90-room property — in a coastal getaway northwest of Los Angeles — is being purchased by a partnership of brothers Justin and Tyler Mateen and Culver Capital, according to representatives for the buyers. The price is $82.2 million, they said. “We look at it as we’re buying 20% of the class A luxury hospitality market in Santa Barbara, which we believe is a growing market,” Tyler Mateen said in an interview Monday. The sale price per room — about $900,000 — is comparable to other recent resort transactions in coastal California, where strict government regulations and a scarcity of land create high barriers to entry, according to Alan Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group, a hotel brokerage based in Newport Beach. “It may look expensive today, but 10 or 20 years from now it looks like a good deal,” Reay said. A spokesperson for LVMH declined to comment on the transaction but said LVMH-owned Bvlgari Hotels & Resorts plans to open a hotel in Miami Beach, Florida, in 2028. The El Encanto’s…

Tinder co-founder buys five-star El Encanto resort in Santa Barbara

By Roger Vincent – Staff Writer July 8, 2025 3 AM PT The five-star El Encanto resort in Santa Barbara, a Hollywood getaway for more than a century where rooms cost north of $1,000 a night, has been sold to Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen for $82.2 million. Mateen bought the historic hotel in one of the city’s exclusive hillside neighborhoods with his brother Tyler and Culver Capital. The 7-acre estate with terraced gardens and views of the Pacific Oceans was purchased from Belmond, the hospitality brand owned by luxury retailer LVMH, marking the sale of LVMH’s only hotel in the United States. The new owners plan to spend as much as $40 million to upgrade the 90-room resort that boasts its Old Hollywood guests included Clark Gable, Hedy Lamarr and Carole Lombard. “It has a lot of California’s rich history and could be one of the nicest hotels in the U.S.,” Mateen said. “The bones and the structure are irreplaceable.” The Mateens have been on an investment spree, buying high-profile properties in Southern California locations where it’s hard to develop new projects. Last month they paid $69 million for retail property near the legendary TCL Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard: the Hollywood Galaxy…

Downtown office high-rise poised to become 560-room hotel with rooftop lounge

The conversion of the office building on Broadway to a hotel is believed to be the largest in California in recent memory By Lori Weisberg | The San Diego Union-Tribune | PUBLISHED: July 4, 2025 at 6:00 AM PDT A now vacant office high-rise in downtown San Diego will be transformed into a 560-room Hyatt hotel, marking what is believed to be the first such conversion in California in recent years. The $250 million project, proposed by San Diego-based developer J Street Space, is a slight pivot from earlier plans to convert the 25-story Tower 180 building on Broadway into a combination of residential and hotel uses. The cost of that plan was originally estimated at $140 million. While office-to-residential conversions are becoming more appealing to developers given the high office vacancy rates in many downtowns and the need for additional housing, J Street is bucking that trend. Its now revised plan calls for a dual-branded hotel, composed of a 371-room Hyatt Place and a 189-room Hyatt House. While the rooms are different in size and function within the two brands — with the Hyatt House geared more toward extended-stay travelers — they will be intermingled within both the tower building and an…

Football World Cup Hospitality: Set to Elevate Los Angeles as a Global Sports and Entertainment Hub

By Saad Nawaz | On June 27, 2025  Football World Cup Hospitality: Some hotel investors are hopeful that a new wave of high-profile events will help diversify LA’s offerings and buoy the marketplace’s post-pandemic recovery. That is since this upcoming glut of events is placed on sports. Los Angeles certainly has some very high-profile proceedings that will contribute to a hotel’s profitability. Experience the excitement of the FIFA World Cup 2026 live by securing your FIFA World Cup Hospitality packages today! Football World Cup Hospitality through our streamlined online platform eTicketing.co, offering you exclusive access at unbeatable prices. Don’t miss your chance to be part of the action. Says Robert Feist, vice leader of Atlas Hospitality Group. The upcoming proceedings, such as the World Cup, the region will take a midpoint stage among the sporting world over the next few years as it hosts the FIFA World Cup and the NBA All-Star Game in 2026, at the SoFi Stadium. In addition, Intuit Vault developments have already shown a claim in area development of hotels, Feist adds. Continuing redevelopment of the area will contribute to new hotels. Had been to come to the right location to present the first of at least three locations in Southern California…

This San Diego building shows why some offices can become hotels — and others can’t

Developer J Street partners with Hyatt on $250 million hospitality complexBy Lou Hirsh | CoStar News | June 26, 2025 | 3:30 P.M. Developer J Street is planning what it calls one of the largest office-to-hospitality conversions ever undertaken in Southern California as owners around the country try to shift workspaces into a wider variety of more lucrative uses in the wake of the pandemic. J Street plans to convert the fully vacant 25-story Tower 180 office building, acquired by the San Diego developer in December 2023 for $61 million, into a 560-room hotel under the Hyatt Place and Hyatt House brands. The $250 million downtown San Diego redevelopment is to be carried out in collaboration with the Chicago-based global hotel operator, with construction set to start in early 2026 and conclude in the first half of 2028. The project “exemplifies the transformation of office space in primary urban markets in the post-pandemic world,” Nirav Shah, regional vice president of development for Hyatt, said in a statement. San Diego is among numerous U.S. cities posting higher vacancies in older office properties, especially in downtown hubs, as many of those buildings have been sold off during the past two years at prices well below…

Travel woes continue as multiple hotels file Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Two of the properties are owned by the Wyndham hospitality group. Veronika Bondarenko | Updated: Jun 17, 2025 6:06 AM EDT n the tourism and hospitality industry, the first six months of 2025 were dominated by a number of high-profile airline bankruptcies. Following a wider restructuring that will take the budget airline private, Spirit Airlines  (SAVE)  emerged just four months after filing for Chapter 11 protection at the end of last year. Competitor and fellow Florida airline Silver Airways was more down on its luck, and after months of reassuring travelers that it would emerge from its heavy debt load swinging, had to accept a $5.77 million stalking horse bid that will barely make a dent in the $500 million owed to creditors. On June 11, Silver put out an ominous social media post telling anyone with a booked ticket to “not go to the airport” and seek any refunds from their credit cards as they were ceasing operations. ‘There was a lot of demand’: Motel 8 sale precedes loan default In the hotel space, there have been few big-name bankruptcies and a number of smaller ones. Throughout the spring, two Wyndham  (WH)  properties in California have needed to file for bankruptcy. The 102-room Super 8 in the Livermore suburb…

Employers Fighting Wage Hike

In response to a new wage hike for hotel and certain airport workers, a group of business leaders plan to bring the issue to voters. By  Howard Fine | June 16, 2025 Employers in L.A.’s tourism sector are trying to overturn the city’s newly enacted hike in the minimum wage for hotel and private sector airport workers to $30 an hour by 2028. A coalition of hoteliers, airlines and private airport sector companies and business groups are racing to gather 93,000 signatures by the end of the month to qualify a referendum on the wage ordinance on an upcoming citywide ballot with the aim to campaign against it. If the coalition – called L.A. Alliance for Tourism, Jobs and Progress – is successful in their petition drive, the wage and health benefit law will be put on hold until voters have their say, likely in June of next year. In the meantime, the prospect of the wage hike taking effect has already prompted the owners of the Universal Hilton Hotel property in Universal City to put expansion plans on pause. Other hoteliers are threatening to nix future investments in the city. What’s more, a group of eight hotels is threatening to…

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