Atlas in the news

By Alex Barreira – Staff Reporter, San Francisco Business Times Jul 29, 2024 | Updated Jul 29, 2024 2:24pm PDT Bay Area hotel production has come to a virtual halt in 2024 with just two properties opening up across the region’s nine counties through the first six months of the year. The latest hotel production survey from Irvine-based Atlas Hospitality finds sluggishness across the state that’s persisted since 2023. Despite a slight increase in production compared with this time last year, the report said higher financing and construction costs continue to hamper hotel projects from reaching the finish line. “We have definitely seen an increase in hotel projects that were in planning being deferred or abandoned,” wrote Atlas President Alan Reay in the report. “We have also seen a number of hotel projects that started construction but are now on hold with no work being performed.” The two Bay Area hotels to open in the first half of 2024 were: San Francisco saw no new hotels open in the first half of this year, and none in all of 2023. As of mid-2024, San Francisco has three hotel projects that are technically under construction, per the report, though the completion of one is…

https://therealdeal.com/la/2020/10/07/irvine-companys-1700-layoffs-mostly-hit-staff-at-3-hotels-resorts/ Among those were workers at Donald Bren-led firm’s shuttered Hotel Irvine and Fashion Island Hotel TRD LOS ANGELES / October 07, 2020 03:37 PM By Matthew Blake Real estate investment and development juggernaut Irvine Company has laid off 1,700 employees since the coronavirus took hold, with most of those cuts affecting workers at three hotels and resorts in Orange County. The layoffs — reported to the state in August through WARN notices — include 698 employees at The Resort at Pelican Hill in Newport Beach, 372 workers at Fashion Island Hotel in Newport Beach, and 317 workers at the Hotel Irvine. The notices indicated that the layoffs took place in May and were made permanent. The affected workers included room cleaning staff, banquet servers, bartenders, cooks, and “customer experience agents.” The Hotel Irvine and Fashion Island Hotel remain closed. Also let go were 106 workers at Oak Creek Golf Club in Irvine, including practice facility attendants and kitchen staff. Another 103 workers who held various office positions at a research park at the University of California at Irvine were laid off, along with 64 employees at Irvine Company’s office in Newport Beach. Each notice states the layoffs are “permanent and there is no collective…

https://www.ocregister.com/2020/10/01/dana-points-monarch-beach-resort-joins-waldorf-astoria-chain/ New owner switches hotel from independent status By JONATHAN LANSNER | jlansner@scng.com | Orange County Register PUBLISHED: October 1, 2020 at 12:01 p.m. | UPDATED: October 1, 2020 at 12:42 p.m. The Monarch Beach Resort will once again be part of a luxury hotel chain. The 400-room, five-diamond hotel in Dana Point announced it’s joining with Hilton to manage and market the resort and will be rebranded as the Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach Resort & Club. The independent resort was bought by Ohana Real Estate Investors for a reported $497 million in November. “It’s fitting that the storied Waldorf Astoria brand is coming to Dana Point — which is one of the most iconic beachfront communities in California,” said James Cole, an Ohana partner. ”This partnership will elevate the entire resort experience.” Waldorf Astoria, with 32 resorts in its portfolio, has a name derived from an iconic New York City skyscraper hotel that is now owned by others. Hotel analyst Alan Reay of Atlas Hospitality says the chain’s marketing muscle will greatly help the resorts, especially in tough pandemic times. “I think it is a good move as Hilton has very little product in south Orange County, so it should do very well,” Reay said. Monarch Beach…

Orange County Business Journal 02/19/16 OC Hotel Development Rising By Paul Hughes http://www.ocbj.com/news/2016/feb/19/oc-hotel-development-rising/   Orange County had 37 hotels with 6,705 rooms under construction or in planning at the end of 2015, a report by Irvine-based Atlas Hospitality Group Inc. said. The hotel consultancy and brokerage said 12 hotels with 2,461 rooms were under construction locally and another 4,234 rooms at 25 properties were in planning. Last year three hotels with 606 rooms opened—slightly below 2014’s four hotels with 699 rooms—Atlas said. The largest hotel under construction at year-end—the Great Wolf Lodge in Garden Grove with 603 rooms—opened today. The building and planning mirror-statewide numbers that show nearly 600 hotels with 90,000 rooms under construction or in planning. “California is experiencing a hotel development boom, which will continue for at least the next 2-3 years,” said Atlas President Alan Reay. Orange County projects under construction or in planning are 6% and 7% of the state’s totals, respectively.

Voice of OC 06/30/15 By Adam Elmahrek http://voiceofoc.org/2015/06/does-the-argument-behind-anaheims-luxury-hotel-tax-subsidy-plan-hold-water/   Earlier this month, in the latest iteration of hotel subsidies in Anaheim, the City Council majority approved a policy that calls for the city to kick back 70 percent of room-tax revenue to developers of luxury hotels based on the premise that high-end hotels generate more tax revenue than those in lower tiers. But not everyone buys this argument, including Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait, the owner of a large hotel chain, and a hotel-financing expert. Tait was the first to dispute the reasoning, saying it comes down to simple arithmetic. When the Council approved the policy at its June 16th meeting, the mayor pointed out that while the city currently receives, on average, $15.33 in revenue per room night from a three-diamond hotel; under the subsidy policy, the city would only get $4.25 per room night from a four-diamond hotel. “Why would we do this?” Tait said. City staff — and a city-hired consultant — say Tait’s basic math problem fails to take into account a more complex reality. Their reasoning goes like this: A four-diamond hotel is constructed with steel frames and can therefore hold many more rooms than a…