PALO ALTO, CA — A Palo Alto hotel has been sold amid a Chicago-based investment group’s Monopoly board-style Bay Area buying spree.
Oxford Capital paid $32.7 million for the Creekside Inn in Palo Alto at 3400 El Camino Real, The Mercury News reports.
The Palo Alto property is among five Oxford Capital purchased for a combined $111 million according to the report, and among two South Bay properties that sold for a combined $53.8 million.
The investment group paid Oxford Capital paid $21.1 million for Hotel Los Gatos on 210 E. Main St.
Oxford Capital paid a combined $57.2 for three San Francisco properties according to the report: The King George Hotel, Hotel Griffon and The Inn at Union Square in San Francisco.
At a time when many investors are staying on the sidelines amid the uncertainty of the pandemic, Oxford Capital’s aggressive maneuvering has raised eyebrows.
“We have been contrarian, value-oriented investors in the lodging sector for nearly 30 years,” said Oxford Capital’s founder and CEO John Rutledge told The Mercury News.
“Through multiple cycles we have consistently had the courage of our convictions to step up during periods of great uncertainty.”
Despite what on the surface appears to be a steep price tag, Oxford Capital got what amounts to a coronavirus discount an industry expert told the news outlet.
Atlas Hospitality Group President Alan Reay estimates that Oxford Capital paid around 36 percent less than it would have for the properties compared to pre-pandemic market value.
“The purchase price is at a big discount to what we would expect to have seen pre-COVID,” Reay said according to the report.
“I would have expected that pre-COVID, these hotels could have sold for $180 million.”
