Atlas in the news

Orange County Business Journal 02/13/17 Hotel Deals Down in 2016 By Paul Hughes http://www.ocbj.com/news/2017/feb/13/hotel-deals-down-2016   22 hotels sold in Orange County for $807 million last year, down 19% and 54%, respectively, from 2015, when 27 hotels sold for $1.8 billion, according to Atlas Hospitality Group in Irvine. The year-end report from hotel consultant and broker Atlas, though, shows a slight boosts in average and median prices per room for hotels that sold—partly a reflection of the prominent properties to change hands. The 396-room Ritz Carlton, Laguna Niguel, in Dana Point, for instance, was the largest and most expensive OC hotel that got a new owner in 2016. Blackstone Group LLC in New York sold the Ritz in September for about $366 million to Anbang Insurance Group Co. in China, in a $6.5 billion portfolio deal which also included Montage Laguna Beach; Montage sold for about $243 million in that deal. The 306-room Hilton Irvine/Orange County Airport was another big 2016 deal in OC 2016. It sold to a China-based buyer in September for about $80 million. The declines mirror a tightening market for hotel transactions in California and the hotel industry overall. Atlas had projected at the beginning of 2016…

San Diego Business Journal 02/13/17 Atlas Report: Local Hotel Property Deal Volume Down 67.8 Percent in 2016 By Lou Hirsh http://www.sdbj.com/news/2017/feb/13/atlas-report-local-hotel-property-deal-volume-down   San Diego County saw hotel property sales volume in 2016 decline 67.8 percent from the prior year, to $473.1 million, as the number of completed deals dropped from 30 to 21, according to the latest annual California data from Atlas Hospitality Group. The Irvine-based brokerage and research firm said the San Diego region’s biggest hotel sale of 2016 by price involved the 372-room San Diego Marriott La Jolla in University Towne Center, purchased in July by New York-based Carey Watermark Investors 2 Inc. for more than $130.8 million. The biggest local hotel by room count that sold during 2016 was the 419-room Crowne Plaza San Diego in Mission Valley, which was acquired in December by Brighton Management of Diamond Bar for approximately $49 million. California as a whole saw hotel property sales volume decline 30 percent, to just over $6.64 billion, as the number of deals dropped from 389 to 322. For 2017, Atlas is projecting that total sales volume statewide will decline again, by between 10 and 20 percent from 2016, with the number of transactions expected…

HotelNewsNow.com 02/14/17 Record Development Pace Fuels California Supply Worries California again proves to be a popular state for hotel development, but those in the industry are keeping a watchful eye on the amount of new supply coming in. By Bryan Wroten http://hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/115526/Record-development-pace-fuels-California-supply-worries   REPORT FROM THE U.S.—The latest California Hotel Development Survey by Atlas Hospitality Group shows the Golden State continues to attract record amounts of new development, but that high is tinged with concerns about overbuilding in some areas. Developers finished construction on 38 new hotels last year in California, representing 5,572 new rooms, according to the survey. There were an additional 112 hotels with 17,623 rooms under construction, an 11% year-over-year increase from 2015. Beyond that, there are 679 hotels in the state with 102,821 rooms in other stages of planning, a 39% year-over-year increase in room count. Looking at the development pipeline, Alan Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group, said he expects 2017 will surpass 2016 in terms of hotels opening and under construction. If the economy continues to grow and business is good, the markets will absorb the new rooms, he said. An increase in interest rates and an economic slowdown would have a dampening effect,…

The Orange County Register 02/10/17 DoubleTree Suites in Dana Point Debuts $8 Million Renovation By Hannah Madans http://www.ocregister.com/articles/hotel-743617-suites-resort.html   A DoubleTree hotel in Dana Point has debuted an $8 million renovation that has refreshed its guest suites, gathering spaces and outdoor lounges. The hotel, at 34402 Pacific Coast Highway, has 196 renovated suites and gathering spaces capable of holding as many as 400 people. The renovation blended the styles of a beach house and a boutique hotel, said Bill Reider, the general manager of DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Hotel Doheny Beach, in a statement. The hotel industry had a busy 2016 with seven hotels opening, according to Irvine-based Atlas Hospitality Group. Of the seven, four were in the Anaheim Resort District. A handful of hotels announced large scale renovations as well. The Waterfront Beach Resort, a Hilton property just across the street, finished a $140 million financing deal to add a suites-only tower. Irvine-based Robert Mayer Corp., which owns the 290-room resort, will add 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 hotel. In January, Irvine-based Pacifica Hotels announced that it had assumed operations…

Los Angeles Times 02/09/17 Anaheim Breaks Visitor Record, with Crowds Flocking to Disneyland and Convention Center By Hugo Martin http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-anaheim-visitors-20170208-story.html   Several bustling conventions, a slew of new hotels and an army of Disneyland fans helped the city of Anaheim draw a record 23 million visitors last year, tourism officials said. The 2016 record, a 2.3% increase over 2015, represents the fourth year in a row that Anaheim has exceeded its previous high total. Tourism officials announced last month that Los Angeles County hosted a record 47.3 million visitors in 2016, a 4% increase over the previous year. Airlines and hotels across the country are also reporting healthy demand growth. Anaheim officials attribute the boost in visitors to an improved economy, the opening of four new hotels, record-setting attendance at several conventions held in the city and big crowds at Disneyland’s 60th anniversary celebration. International visitors from Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand helped bolster Anaheim’s tourism numbers. “More hotels were proposed and built, theme park expansion was announced, the number of breweries doubled — paving the way for us to welcome even more visitors to our awe-inspiring city,” said Jay Burress, chief executive of Visit Anaheim, the nonprofit that…

Bisnow 02/02/17 SoCal Hotel Boom Has 13,000 Rooms Rising, Nearly 1,500 in San Diego By Patricia Kirk https://www.bisnow.com/san-diego/news/hotel/socal-hotel-boom-has-13000-rooms-rising-nearly-1500-in-san-diego-70556   Southern California is experiencing a hotel boom, with more than 13,000 rooms under construction in 2016 and another 66,000 in the pipeline. Six hotels with 1,017 rooms opened in San Diego last year, up from 711 rooms in 2015. The largest was Portman Holdings’ BRIC1, a dual-branded, 400-key Marriott SpringHill Suites and Residence Inn on the downtown waterfront. Additionally, eight hotels with 1,444 rooms, including Portman’s 400-key InterContinental Hotel, were under construction in 2016, a 32% increase from the 1,091 rooms under construction the previous year. “I know it looks like a lot of hotel development, but no hotels have been built in more than a decade,” said Robert Green Co CEO Robert Green at a recent Bisnow event. He said hotel rooms added in San Diego during the current cycle will increase supply by just 2%. Developers are making up for the number of rooms that should have been added between 2010 and 2013, Atlas Hospitality president Alan Reay told the San Diego Union-Tribune. He said no hotel projects were built during the first few years after the recession ended…

The San Diego Union-Tribune 02/01/17 Hotel Building Boom Continues in Southern California By Lori Weisberg http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/sd-fi-hotel-development-20170131-story.html   Hotel developers remain bullish on Southern California, with more than 13,000 rooms under construction during 2016, plus 66,000 more in the planning pipeline. The 12 percent growth in last year’s construction activity over 2015 is documented in a new year-end report compiled by Orange County-based Atlas Hospitality Group. Los Angeles easily rivals all other counties with 7,239 rooms currently being built, including a 900-room InterContinental nearing completion in downtown L.A. The 73-story high-rise, the largest hotel in the state to begin construction last year, is due to open in the spring. An InterContinental is also being built in downtown San Diego. At 400 rooms, it is the largest of the eight hotels that were under construction last year in the county. Those properties accounted for 1,444 rooms, a 32 percent jump in volume over the 1,091 rooms built in 2015. As evidence of the keen interest in hotel development, there are 679 hotels, with nearly 103,000 rooms statewide, in various stages of planning — a 39 percent room count increase over 2015. Credit a six-year, post-recession run-up in room revenues and escalating hotel…

The Orange County Register 01/14/17 Boutique Huntington Beach Hotel, Shorebreak, Launches $3 Million Makeover By Nancy Luna http://www.ocregister.com/articles/hotel-741129-beach-huntington.html As competition heats up along Pacific Coast Highway, Shorebreak Hotel in downtown Huntington Beach is embarking on a $3 million makeover that includes a new restaurant, expanded private dining and major décor changes to its 157 rooms. “At the end of the day, it will be a brand new property,” hotel general manager Justin Simpson…   …With travel up, room rates in California are also rising. As of November, the cost per room in California was up 6 percent year to date, according to Atlas Hospitality Group, an Irvine-based firm that tracks the hotel industry. The company doesn’t have data specific to Huntington Beach, however, room rates in nearby Newport Beach were up 1.3 percent. Anaheim hotel rates jumped 8.3 percent for the same period In downtown Huntington Beach, developers are taking advantage of the increased interest in travel…

Orange County Business Journal 01/26/17 Hotel Development Stays Strong http://www.ocbj.com/news/2017/jan/26/hotel-development-stays-strong   Orange County has 11 hotels with 1,655 rooms under construction about on par overall with the seven hotels and 1,808 the market added last year. The numbers show strong local hotel development, said Alan Reay, president of consultant and broker Atlas Hospitality Group in Irvine, which produces the annual California Hotel Development Survey. “Across the board we’re seeing development way, way up,” he said. “The price of existing hotels here is way above replacement costs,” which makes development more attractive. The slight dip in new rooms—1,655 this year compared with 1,808 last year—is due largely to the 2016 opening of Great Wolf Lodge in Garden Grove last year, with its 603 rooms. It’s the largest hotel by room count that opened in California in 2016. The numbers look to continue strongly for several years, the Atlas survey shows, with 40 hotels with 8,808 rooms in some stage of planning in OC.

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…