Atlas in the news
Anaheim’s Allure: $200M+ Of Hotel Sales in Region
https://www.ocbj.com/news/2021/jul/05/anaheims-allure-200m-hotel-sales-region/ TOURISM: DOUBLETREE, CANDLEWOOD ARE LATEST HOTELS TO TRADE By Katie Murar Monday, July 5, 2021 A pair of hotels in the vicinity of the Anaheim Resort region have traded hands in separate deals topping $100 million, the Business Journal has learned. The two deals, coming on the heels of three other recent transactions previously reported in Anaheim that totaled another $120 million, mark the latest sign of rising investor interest for properties that cater to Orange County’s largest tourist base, which is beginning to see increased activity amid loosening travel restrictions in the state. The DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Anaheim, a 461-room hotel in Orange not far from the Anaheim Resort region, is the latest notable area property to change hands. AWH Partners LLC and Apollo Global Management Inc., both of New York, are the buyers for the DoubleTree, which is next to the Outlets at Orange shopping center. It’s the largest hotel in the city of Orange, and ranks No. 18 among all hotels in OC by total room count. At 19 stories, it and Fashion Island Hotel (see story, page 3) are OC’s tallest hotels. The DoubleTree marks the first local buy in the county for the AWH-Apollo joint venture. Spire Hospitality, the Irving,…
Sunstone is Hotel Seller No More
https://www.ocbj.com/news/2021/may/10/sunstone-hotel-seller-no-more/ HOSPITALITY: $265M FOR WINE COUNTRY RESORT By Katie Murar Monday, May 10, 2021 After a selling season that spanned nearly four years, Sunstone Hotel Investors has returned to the market as a buyer, spending $265 million for a recently built hotel in Northern California that’s tops for the state since the onset of the pandemic. The Irvine-based real estate investment trust (NYSE: SHO) paid a little more than $2 million per key for the 130-room Montage Healdsburg in Sonoma County, in a deal that closed late last month. The purchase is the first deal for Sunstone since 2017 and brings its hotel portfolio to 18, about half what it was at the end of 2014. The acquisition “is consistent with our stated tactics of acquiring long-term relevant real estate in the early phases of a cyclical recovery,” Sunstone Chief Executive John Arabia said at the time of the sale’s announcement. Record Sale Affiliates of Ohana Real Estate Investors sold the Montage Healdsburg about three years of joining the project. “This sale reflects the strong interest from investors in best-in-class, leisure-oriented resorts as the hotel industry begins to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said James Cole, head of asset management at Ohana. Redwood City-based Ohana…
Short-Term Rental Companies Prosper During Pandemic
https://labusinessjournal.com/news/2021/may/17/short-term-rental-companies-prosper-during-covid/ By Hannah Madans Monday, May 17, 2021 Despite tough regulations and a pandemic that pummeled the Los Angeles hospitality industry, local vacation rental operators are thriving. West Hollywood-based AvantStay Inc. and Beverly Hills-based Nightfall Group are seeing a surge in demand. Bookings with AvantStay, a short-term rental company that operates in 60 cities, including Malibu, are “really off the charts,” said co-founder Sean Breuner. “We’re up three (times) year over year in terms of demand,” he said. Many travelers shied away from hotels during the pandemic and instead escaped to short-term rentals, where they could hunker down and avoid crowds. Now that large venues and attractions are reopening, and more Americans are rolling up their sleeves to get immunized against Covid-19, industry experts predict short-term rentals will continue to pose stiff competition for hotels. In March 2020, at the start of pandemic shutdowns, occupancy levels at short-term rental properties were at 47.2%, compared with 58.2% the previous year, according to data from AirDNA, a group that tracks 10 million vacation rentals worldwide, including those listed on Airbnb Inc. Those numbers ended up climbing during the pandemic, and occupancy in March jumped by 29.1% from March 2020 levels and by 4.6%…
COVID hospitality: Two Silicon Valley hotels head for auction block and foreclosure
Hotels in Mountain View, Sunnyvale face seizure through loan foreclosure https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2021/04/26/covid-real-estate-two-silicon-valley-hotels-auction-foreclosure/ By GEORGE AVALOS | gavalos@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group PUBLISHED: April 26, 2021 at 5:45 a.m. | UPDATED: April 27, 2021 at 6:46 a.m. SUNNYVALE — Two Silicon Valley hotels are headed for the auction block and foreclosure, fresh evidence that economic ailments unleashed by the coronavirus still sicken the hospitality industry. The lender that holds the mortgage on the hotels, one in Sunnyvale and one in Mountain View, has scheduled a public auction for the two properties, which would be a prelude to a loan foreclosure and seizure, according to property documents filed on April 20. The property owners of the Hotel Avante, 860 E. El Camino Real in Mountain View, and the Wild Palms Hotel, 910 E. Fremont Ave. in Sunnyvale, defaulted in October 2020 on a $37 million loan that was provided by Cantor Commercial Real Estate Lending in 2014, Santa Clara County documents show. “This is a sign that lenders are losing patience and taking a more proactive approach with their borrowers, especially the ones that are severely delinquent,” said Alan Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group, which tracks the lodging sector. The total amount owed on the loan as of…
Gov. Newsom’s Economic Reopening Announcement Isn’t The Defining Moment CRE Needs
https://www.bisnow.com/san-francisco/news/commercial-real-estate/california-june-reopening-might-mean-choppy-waters-ahead-108468 April 9, 2021 Bianca Barragán and Jacob Bourne After having the physical and social scope of their lives drastically diminished for over a year, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement that the state may undergo a full economic reopening on June 15 could signal to Californians that it is time to celebrate. For commercial real estate, that could manifest in people flocking to restaurants and shops, staying in hotels, signing office leases and kicking off tenant improvement projects. But dreams of smooth summertime sailing could be tempered by some real-life rough patches. Before the pivotal date arrives, state and local officials will have to determine that there is enough vaccine supply to meet the demand of those eligible within two weeks of an appointment being scheduled. Plus, hospitalization rates need to remain low. Meeting both of those criteria could be derailed by a wave of coronavirus mutations currently spreading through the Northeast and Midwest, leading to calls for additional vaccine supply, as reported by The Washington Post. Yet, even if California passes the reopening test, the subsequent parties being planned by JLL Executive Managing Director Chris Roeder’s younger colleagues will definitely be masked, he said, adding that the hospitality and restaurant industries should bounce back quickly. However,…
Wave Of Distress Missing LA Hotels To The Delight Of Value-Add And Redevelopment Projects
https://www.bisnow.com/los-angeles/news/hotel/los-angeles-hotels-pandemic-rebound-108471 April 9, 2021 Bianca Barragán, Bisnow Southern California The team marketing the Mart South hotel redevelopment in Downtown LA’s Fashion District noticed earlier this year that there was a big increase in interest in the property, a former office building entitled for hotel conversion. In fall 2020, the property was averaging about three inquiries a month, but in January and February, when a buyer was selected, that shot up to 20 inquiries a month. It surprised Cushman & Wakefield Executive Managing Director Mike Condon Jr. and Associate Bailey Dawson, who are leading the property sale, but Dawson said it seems indicative of the larger trend they’re seeing in LA. “There’s really been no massive wave of distress that’s enabling people that are trying to prey on the downturn,” Dawson said. “We just haven’t seen that.” The Los Angeles hospitality sector was, like others across the country, deeply impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. However, a potential summer reopening is about two months away, and leisure travel across the state appears to be making a noticeable return. The absence of mass foreclosures in LA that many braced for has some in the industry wondering if the worst is behind LA. That isn’t to say that hotels haven’t struggled….
Will California hotels get back to normal? This expert says yes
https://www.ocregister.com/2021/03/29/will-california-hotels-get-back-to-normal-this-expert-says-yes/ “The amount of interest that we’re now receiving from buyers is incredible. In some respects, it’s as if COVID never happened,” says Alan Reay. By SANDRA BARRERA | sbarrera@scng.com | Los Angeles Daily News PUBLISHED: March 29, 2021 at 8:00 a.m. | UPDATED: March 29, 2021 at 8:01 a.m. Like so many people, Alan Reay can’t wait to check-in, again. Reay is president and founder of Atlas Hospitality Group, an Irvine-based broker of California hotel sales. In the year since the COVID-19 outbreak, his travel plans were upended, with trips and conferences canceled or put on hold. After several decades as a top-producing hotel broker, the Brit who calls Newport Beach home founded Atlas Hospitality Group in 1996. The company also consults and compiles data of California hotel sales (which were slightly up by .3% last year from 2019; more than any other state) and new hotel construction. “I think the last business trip that I did was to San Francisco, and that was back in September of last year,” Reay said. “We’re tentatively scheduled to go to Maui in May, and hopefully that’s still on.” Business or pleasure? “Maui is for pleasure,” he said by phone. “Although when you’re in the hotel business, you’re always looking at…
Real estate: Upscale Menlo Park hotel is seized through foreclosure
https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/04/02/real-estate-upscale-menlo-park-hotel-seized-foreclosure-covid/ Boutique Menlo Park hotel in default on mortgage is auctioned off By GEORGE AVALOS | gavalos@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group PUBLISHED: April 2, 2021 at 5:45 a.m. | UPDATED: April 2, 2021 at 4:23 p.m. MENLO PARK — An upscale Menlo Park hotel whose owners had defaulted on a property loan has been seized through foreclosure of its loan, a grim new entry in the catalog of lodging industry woes during the coronavirus era. Park James Hotel, located at 1400 El Camino Real near downtown Menlo Park, is now owned by an affiliate of a Midwest firm whose specialties include the purchase of delinquent property loans, according to documents filed on Feb. 4 with San Mateo County officials. The hotel’s owners had become delinquent on a loan issued in 2019 by Employees Retirement Plan of Consolidated Electrical Distributors Inc., county public records show. The financing for the hotel totaled $32 million, according to county property documents. The loan went into default in September 2020 — less than a year when the financing was provided in December 2019, an unusually short period of time for commercial property financing to become delinquent. PJ Hotel, an affiliate of Illinois-based Bixby Bridge Capital, now owns the hotel, the county…
Sac, West Sac paid millions over appraised values for two motels under Homekey program
https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2021/04/01/homekey-appraised-values.html By Renata Geraldo – Data Reporter Sacramento Business Journal Apr 1, 2021, 3:14pm EDT The cities of Sacramento and West Sacramento paid a total of almost $5 million above appraised market values for two motels they acquired under the Homekey program, a $600 million statewide project to purchase motels and convert them into housing for unhoused people. The Rodeway Inn in West Sacramento, which an appraiser valued at $3.38 million, was acquired by that city for $6.75 million from a limited partnership last November, documents obtained by the Business Journal show. Meanwhile, Sacramento’s La Mancha, previously called the WoodSprings Suites, was appraised at $12.6 million and acquired by the city for $14 million last September from WoodSprings’ parent company Madison Avenue P&L Enterprises Inc., according to the documents. The state’s Homekey program generally provided grants to cities, matching the market value of the motels they purchased. Sacramento and West Sacramento used public funds approved by their city councils to purchase the motels. Four other motels in the Sacramento area were purchased for the same prices as their appraisals. Local officials say there was an important factor that led them to pay above appraised values for the two properties — time. They…
Downtown Oakland Moxy hotel completes construction, preps opening
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2021/03/31/downtown-oakland-moxy-hotel-complete-construct-open-real-estate-covid/ Opportunity zone tax breaks bolster Oakland hotel’s development By GEORGE AVALOS | gavalos@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group PUBLISHED: March 31, 2021 at 12:09 p.m. | UPDATED: April 1, 2021 at 4:39 p.m. OAKLAND — Downtown Oakland’s bustling Uptown District is about to get a new Moxy Hotel, a welcome change of pace to a dismal year of coronavirus-linked business shutdowns that eviscerated the global hospitality industry. Construction has just been completed on the 172-room Moxy Oakland Downtown, a boutique lodging that will represent a rarity for the East Bay’s largest city: one of the first new hotel projects in Oakland in roughly a decade. The hotel is located at 2225 Telegraph Ave. in Oakland’s Uptown, a neighborhood of restaurants, nightspots, entertainment hubs, cocktail lounges, and theaters. The hotel was jointly developed by Tidewater Capital, a San Francisco-based real estate firm with both development and investment expertise; and Graves Hospitality, a hotel management firm with veteran expertise. “We’re pleased to open the doors of the Moxy and deliver a new placemaking component to Oakland’s vibrant culture and community,” said Kyle Winkler, director of construction with Tidewater Capital. The new Moxy officially opened on Wednesday and began taking reservations and accepting guests, the hotel’s owners said….
Interest Grows in Converting Hotels to Other Uses
Multifamily, Senior Living, Student Housing Among More Popular Conversions https://www.costar.com/article/577844466?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hospitality_prospect&utm_content=p1 By Bryan Wroten Hotel News Now Mar 24, 2021 | 1:09 P.M. Both private and government buyers are finding real estate conversion opportunities with U.S. hotel owners who are reevaluating the highest and best use of their properties due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Buyers and other investors have for years looked to older hotels as a way to have a ready-built property suited for a multitude of needs: condos, affordable housing, student housing and assisted living. Some have found success in converting hotels to other real estate classes, but interest in redeveloping hotels to other uses has grown over the course of the pandemic due to the financial strain it has caused hotel owners. Converting to Other Classes Hotel owners reconsidering their properties’ highest and best use or buyers looking to redevelop a hotel take into consideration three questions, said Josh Smith, senior vice president at Hospitality Real Estate Counselors. First, they have to determine whether converting to another real estate class makes sense financially and whether the cost is feasible. Next, they have to figure out if changing from one use to another is legal. And lastly, they also need…
Real estate: Bankrupt Bay Area hotels are slated for auction
Court sets May schedule for sale of 15 hotels, including two in Bay Area https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/03/25/real-estate-bankrupt-bay-area-hotel-auction-covid-queen-mary/ By GEORGE AVALOS | gavalos@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group PUBLISHED: March 25, 2021 at 6:20 a.m. | UPDATED: March 25, 2021 at 10:14 a.m. SAN JOSE — A bankrupt hotel chain has won court approval for the sale of more than a dozen U.S. hotels, including two in the Bay Area, whose finances crumbled beneath economic blows that the coronavirus unleashed. The auction of the hotels is scheduled to be completed by the end of May and a private investment firm has been picked as a “stalking horse” to set a minimum bid for the 15 hotels involved in the sale, according to a bankruptcy court order. The Bay Area hotels due to be auctioned off in May are the Four Points by Sheraton at 1471 N. Fourth St. in San Jose and the Holiday Inn & Suites at 330 N. Bayshore Blvd. in San Mateo, according to documents on file with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The minimum price for the package of hotels is $470 million, the court files show. Monarch Alternative Capital is the bidder-to-beat in the auction. Monarch Alternative is a private investment firm that specializes in owning…
