Atlas in the news
Hotel Industry in O.C. Off to Solid Start with New Deals in the Works
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…
Hillcrest Hotel Being Converted to Apartments
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…
7 Hotels Opened in the OC Last Year with More to Come
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.
Golden Globes Turns Up Shine at Beverly Hilton
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…
Orange County Saw 7 Hotels Open in 2016, with More on the Way in 2017
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…
Mission Valley’s Hanalei Hotel Is Sold
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…
New High-end Hotel Brand Arrives in Silicon Valley
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…
Weighing the Hospitality Boom in LA
Bisnow 11/10/16 Weighing the Hospitality Boom in LA By Karen Jordan https://www.bisnow.com/los-angeles/news/hotel/lodging-trends-67441 The number of hotels being built in LA is exploding. Are they too much of a good thing? Atlas Hospitality Group president Alan Reay said LA County has 40 hotels under construction with more than 7,000 rooms. The last record was 10 years ago with 1,400 rooms, Alan told our moderator, Pankow project executive Peter Loeb , and the more than 200 people who attended the recent Bisnow LA Hospitality Development Boom event at the Omni Hotel in DTLA. The US leads the world in the number of hotels under construction with LA the No. 3 market after New York and Houston, according to Alan. He said the question now is whether LA is overbuilding. Alan said it could be an issue in the short term compared to other convention center markets. However, many conferences have bypassed LA in the past because of the lack of hotel rooms. There are also certain incentives fueling the boom, HKS senior designer Jessica Sager said. They include the transient occupancy transit rebate that her firm has seen used by a client in Anaheim. Brands are also working hard these days to…
Beverly Hills Squeezes Chinese Hotel Builder for Big Bucks Instead of Offering a Handout
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…
Beverly Hills Outlines Lucrative Development Deal with Wanda Group
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…
Park Hyatt Hotel Is Set to Join the Downtown L.A. Building Boom
Los Angeles Times 10/24/16 Park Hyatt Hotel Is Set to Join the Downtown L.A. Building Boom By Andrew Khouri http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-downtown-hyatt-20161024-snap-story.html The $1-billion Oceanwide Plaza development, under construction in downtown Los Angeles, will include a luxury Park Hyatt hotel, underscoring the resurgence of the city center. The Hyatt Hotels Corp. brand is in just 38 locations worldwide and currently has no locations in Los Angeles. Its arrival across from Staples Center could help the Oceanwide condo and hotel project stand out in a neighborhood awash in construction. Nearby, Chinese developer Greenland Group is underway on another $1-billion condo and hotel project known as Metropolis that will include a 350-room Hotel Indigo, a hip boutique brand operated by InterContinental Hotels Group. Other big projects include a 900-room InterContinental hotel inside the nearly completed Wilshire Grand skyscraper and a proposal for a W Hotel that would replace the Luxe City Center Hotel across from L.A. Live. “Every major hotel brand needs to have a presence downtown,” said Alan X. Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group. “Fifteen to 20 years ago people were exiting downtown. It’s sort of night and day.” Beijing-based Oceanwide Holdings and Hyatt announced their plans Monday. The 184-room Park…
Veteran Hotel Developers Talk Building Boom, Under Demolished and Overbuilt Areas
Orange County Register 10/24/16 Veteran Hotel Developers Talk Building Boom, Under Demolished and Overbuilt Areas By Hannah Madans http://www.ocregister.com/articles/olson-733128-hotel-hotels.html More public spaces. Catering to international visitors. Hotels with local flair. Those are just a few trends veteran developer Bob Olson is seeing in the hotel industry. He owns Irvine-based R.D. Olson Construction and Newport Beach-based R.D. Olson Development, both of which are juggling half a dozen hotel projects in an industry seeing years of growth after the Great Recession. Hotel expansion in Orange County is ongoing, as developers (in addition to Olson) build out 10 new hotels, which will add 1,504 rooms to the marketplace. Six hotels already have opened this year, according to Irvine-based Atlas Hospitality Group. “There are markets that are getting overbuilt,” Olson said. “The losers in those markets will be the old hotels. It’s not that we’ll be overbuilt – we’ll be under-demolished.” Alan Reay, president of the Irvine-based real estate company Atlas Hospitality Group, agrees. “Year-to-date hotel rooms under construction for the U.S. are up almost 30 percent from where they were last year,” Reay said. “A lot of people are worried that we’re building too many hotel rooms. “It’s really a big threat…
