Atlas in the news

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…

Los Angeles Business Journal 01/25/16 SPECIAL REPORT: New Scene Checks In Once known for rock ‘n’ roll excess, Sunset Strip now making room for hotel developments aimed at reviving area as must-visit destination. By Daina Beth Solomon http://labusinessjournal.com/news/2016/jan/25/special-report-new-scene-checks/   Over the decades, the Sunset Strip has witnessed Jim Morrison dangle out of a hotel window, Tower Records become a global landmark and River Phoenix die of a drug overdose. Now a new era is beginning for the legendary area as real estate developers look to bank on the boulevard’s storied past of celebrity and counterculture. After three decades without major construction, several multistory projects have broken ground and are pushing up the Strip’s skyline. Sleek new buildings with rooftop pools and public plazas will add more than 758 hotel rooms and 254 residences on Sunset Boulevard. Altogether, they represent an estimated value of $1 billion. At least two other complexes are in development as well, including a Frank Gehry design. Backed by major companies, these projects will inevitably transform both the economy and culture of the iconic mile-and-a half section of Sunset. “Sunset has gone through so many changes over the years, from the hippies and punk rockers to the…

Laguna Beach Independent 01/22/16 Small Hotels Adopt Big Ideas By Randy Kraft http://trendmag2.trendoffset.com/display_article.php?id=2377210&id_issue=288387   Ever since developer Ian Schrager opened Morgans hotel in Manhattan in 1984, boutique lodging has been a hip alternative to large resorts and hotel chains. The globetrotting millennial population will further spur the trend, suggests Skift, a website tracking travel industry trends, as they prefer chic environs with personal amenities like wine tastings, on-site spas, hi-tech work spaces and high thread-count bedding. In Laguna Beach, small hotels are being revitalized to not only appeal to guests with an aversion for chains, but to capitalize on their historic value. The Coast Inn and Casa Laguna Inn & Spa, both close to the century mark, are modernizing, and a different kind of change is afoot at a former midscale chain hotel with an enviable location. All three properties were purchased in recent years at prices reflecting the demand for coastal resorts, but still far lower than larger upscale properties like the Montage, which sold last year at a record $1.4 million per room, comparable to the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. “Laguna hotels trade for a higher price per room than other Orange County hotels due to…

The Orange County Register 01/15/16 Hotel Deals: Pacific Hospitality Group Buys in Hawaii; Anaheim Firm Buys in San Diego By Hannah Madans http://www.ocregister.com/articles/hotel-700047-hospitality-new.html   The hotel boom for Orange County hospitality is already making waves in the New Year. Irvine-based Pacific Hospitality Group has bought the oceanfront Ko’a Kea Hotel & Resort on Kauai. The property was named the most prestigious resort in Hawaii in Conde Nast Traveler’s “Top 25 Resorts in Hawaii: Readers’ Choice Awards 2015.” Terms of the deal, which was announced Thursday, were not disclosed. “It sits really nicely within our expanding portfolio of assets,” said Kory Kramer, PHG chief investment officer. “It’s our first purchase outside of California for the Meritage Collection, which provides diversity and gets us into the Hawaiian market, which we foresee growth in – and it’s a hard market to enter.” Kramer said PHG plans to increase occupancy rates at the Ko’a Kea, which stands just above 60 percent. The hospitality group plans to increase marketing efforts and leverage existing clients. The 121-room hotel includes nine suites, a fitness center, spa, pool and 11,170 square feet of meeting space. The hotel’s restaurant, Red Salt, serves seafood and locally sourced produce. The hotel…

Bisnow 01/11/16 Anaheim’s Fortune Hospitality Snaps Up San Diego Best Western By Patricia Kirk https://www.bisnow.com/orange-county/news/hotel/anaheims-fortune-hospitality-snaps-up-newly-renovated-best-western-in-n-san-diego-co-for-124m-54369 Anaheim-based Fortune Hospitality has acquired the contemporary, 78-room Best Western Plus hotel in North San Diego County for $12.4M, or about $159k/room. The seller was Beverly Hills-based Sikand La Mesa Hotel LLC. Built in 1986 and newly renovated, the former Holiday Inn Express is a three-story hotel on a little less than an acre site at 9550 Murray Dr in La Mesa, just minutes from SDSU, Aztec Aquaplex, Qualcomm Stadium and the SD Zoo. The hotel features a pool, spa, fitness facility and business center, according to the Orange County Business Journal. Irvine-based Atlas Hospitality brokers SVP Sachin Shah and EVP Oliver Shah repped both parties in this deal.