Atlas in the news

Study: California hotel construction outlook is bleak

https://therealdeal.com/la/2020/08/20/study-california-hotel-construction-outlook-is-bleak/ Hotels under construction are distressed, while planned projects get nixed TRD LOS ANGELES / By Matthew Blake          August 20, 2020 02:04 PM A report on California hotel construction found there soon will be no hotel construction. “We are forecasting that the vast majority of hotel projects in planning will simply not get built,” concludes Atlas Hospitality Group in their survey of California hotel construction through the first six months of 2020. At least developers with projects in planning can still back out, said Justin Myers, vice president of Atlas Hospitality, which is an Irvine-based hospitality brokerage. Other hotels in construction are distressed, while even those completed don’t want to open due to dismal occupancy rates amid the coronavirus pandemic. Myers gave the example of a 600-room J.W. Marriott in Anaheim by Disneyland. Construction was completed in March, but the hotel did not open until this week. Overall, 194 hotels were under construction in California through June 30, a 17 percent decline from the 231 hotels built at the same time in 2019. L.A. County has 49 hotels under construction, according to the report. The number of hotels built could decline further by this time next year. Atlas Hospitality estimates there are 1,246…

Pandemic Slows Pace of California Hotel Construction in 2020

https://product.costar.com/home/news/1029860132 Some Developers Could Pivot Project to Residential Uses By Lou Hirsh CoStar News August 20, 2020 | 4:14 P.M. Tough times for the travel industry during the coronavirus pandemic spurred a 17% decline in hotel construction in California, coming off a record-setting year for the state that traditionally leads the nation for hotel room demand and development. The number of California hotels under construction dropped to 194 in the first six months of 2020 from 234 in the same period last year, as total rooms under construction declined nearly 20% to 26,418, according to hotel brokerage and research firm Atlas Hospitality Group. “We are forecasting that the vast majority of hotel projects in planning will simply not get built,” said Alan Reay, president of brokerage and research firm Atlas Hospitality Group in a new midyear development report. “Developers are already looking at other uses, namely residential.” The pandemic has created significant financial uncertainty that could affect developer appetites to build the new hotels that are in the state’s long-term pipeline, at a time when many current hotels are struggling to reopen and get customers to return, especially in coastal regions including Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange County. California has historically been the state…

Hotel construction down 17.1% statewide from year ago

Image courtesy of Delawie A rendering of SD Malkin’s Destination Hotel Resort (also known as the Oceanside Beach Resort) in Oceanside. Thursday, August 20, 2020 By Thor Kamban Biberman Newly completed hotels are opening into a pandemic-fueled recession, while those that were planning to begin construction may be thinking about building in another asset class entirely. Atlas Hospitality Group president Alan Reay, whose firm just completed a mid-year hotel construction survey, said numerous new hotels have postponed their openings, while many hotels remain closed. “Over 40 percent of hotels in San Francisco are closed,” Reay said, adding that Anaheim is another city that has been particularly hit hard by the pandemic and hotel closures. “Some projects are being abandoned if they weren’t already under construction.” New hotel construction in California has tempered quickly from the record-setting pace set in the first half of 2019. The number of hotels under construction decreased 17.1 percent (from 234 to 194), and the number of new rooms under construction declined by 19.9 percent, according to Atlas Hospitality. Thirty-five hotels opened in the first half of 2020, just one less than 2019, but with 22.5 percent fewer rooms. The number of new hotels and rooms…

Airbnb Files for IPO as Reeling Hotel Industry Struggles to Recover

Home-Sharing Provider’s Funding Could Help It in Pandemic, Challenge Hospitality Sector By Katie Burke CoStar News August 19, 2020 | 4:32 P.M. Home-sharing company Airbnb officially filed its intention to embark on an initial public offering, catching the hotel industry off guard at a point when it is struggling to recover from the pandemic. The San Francisco-based firm, credited for popularizing the modern short-term home rental industry, told CoStar News it filed the initial paperwork to go public with the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday. Airbnb did not disclose the number of available shares or the price range at which they would be offered. The announcement of the filing did not disclose any financial results to give potential investors any indication of how the company is performing in the pandemic. The move could position Airbnb to emerge from the pandemic with financial momentum, potentially setting the stage for it to snap up more market share in the hospitality industry just when hotel properties have reported their biggest, most dramatic drop in modern history. It comes in the same week as the S&P 500 has reached a record high. As more travelers begin to consider venturing away again, Airbnb has been recommending…

Hotel Openings and Construction Are Slowing Across the State

BY JOSEPH PIMENTEL ORANGE COUNTY PUBLISHED 5:45 PM ET AUG. 20, 2020 The pace of new hotel openings in California is going down. After the state saw a record number of hotel openings and construction, the coronavirus-catalyzed economic downturn has slowed new hotel openings and developments in Orange County and throughout California through the first half of this year, according to a new report by Irvine-based Atlas Hospitality Group. Last year, California welcomed the opening of 92 hotels totaling 11,795 rooms, the most in the state since 2017. This year, 35 hotels totaling 3,500 rooms have opened in the first half of the year, but the downturn caused by the coronavirus has many hotel operators delaying, deferring, or outright abandoning their hotel projects, Atlas Hospitality President Alan Reay said. Hotel sales are also down, Reay said, and the number of hotels under construction has decreased 17 percent year-over-year from 234 to 194. “We are forecasting that the vast majority of hotel projects in planning will simply not get built,” the report states. “Developers are already looking at other uses, namely residential. For those developers that still want to move forward with new hotel development, they are going to find it virtually impossible…

Bay Area officials want to purchase your hotel. Here’s why and what you should know

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2020/07/30/bay-area-officials-sprint-project-roomkey.html By Alex Barreira  – Staff Reporter, San Francisco Business Times Jul 30, 2020, 4:27pm PDT Updated Jul 30, 2020, 4:29pm PDT A new state initiative is granting Bay Area officials about $100 million to purchase permanent housing for the homeless, opening a potential exit route for some struggling hotel owners. It’s part of Project Roomkey, a project which aims to build on the temporary use of hotels to house the homeless during the pandemic, encouraging counties to buy hotels, motels and apartment buildings for long-term use as supportive housing. As part of his latest state budget, Gov. Gavin Newsom recently said there was $600 million in federal relief funding available to California counties to participate in the program. The state will begin distributing these funds Aug. 13. But the funding will expire if it’s not used by the end of the year, which has sent officials in at least three Bay Area counties — Alameda, Contra Costa and San Francisco — sprinting to talk with hotel property owners possibly interested in selling, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Here are a few of the factors that will help determine how many of these deals get done: • Budget hotels were already being squeezed, and some are inclined to leave as…

LA Celebrity Hideaway Chateau Marmont Could Become Private Residential Club

Iconic Property’s Owner Explores New Model as Pandemic Hits Hotels Hard https://product.costar.com/home/news/shared/616076017?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personalized&utm_content=p4 By Lou Hirsh CoStar News July 29, 2020 | 6:46 P.M. The iconic Chateau Marmont hotel, a nearly century-old landmark off Los Angeles’ famed Sunset Strip and known as a secluded luxury stopover for celebrities, is being eyed by its current owner for a conversion into a private members-only retreat. Hotelier Andre Balazs is planning to convert the 63-room property at 8221 W. Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood, along with others that he owns worldwide, into a “private, members-owned hotel” that would be operated similar to a club with fee-paying members and allow guests to acquire ownership stakes, a company spokeswoman told CoStar News. Balazs told the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the plan, that he has been considering this strategy for the past three years. He is now among numerous owners nationwide now mulling alternative business models as the coronavirus pandemic is taking a serious financial toll on travel and tourism, especially high-end vacations at luxury hotels. “There are owners out there who are looking to find other uses for their hotels,” said Alan Reay, president of California-focused hotel brokerage and research firm Atlas Hospitality Group in Irvine, who is not involved…

Motels are having a moment. It’s a coronavirus thing

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-07-24/motels-coronavirus-design By ROGER VINCENTSTAFF WRITER  JULY 24, 2020 11:03 AM After many years of being looked down on, motels are getting new respect in the era of social distancing. Guests at open-corridor inns may come and go without passing through crowded lobbies, packed elevators or enclosed hallways where viruses may linger. “In outdoor corridors, people feel safe,” said Mike Riverside of the Asian American Hotel Owners Assn. “People can go directly to their rooms” and potentially reduce exposure to the coronavirus. Outdoor-facing, low-rise motels and hotels also stand to benefit from being typically reached by car, unlike big resorts and urban hotels that rely on air travel to deliver most guests. With many still apprehensive about flying, drive-to destinations are widely expected to be the first beneficiaries of the gradual return of pleasure jaunts away from home. “There is pent-up demand for leisure travel and nobody is too excited to share an elevator,” said Patrick Scholes, an analyst who follows the lodging and leisure industries for investment bank SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. “For the moment, it definitely does give you an advantage” to have outdoor corridors in your hotel. Inns where every guest’s front door opens to the elements loom large in the collective memories…

West Elm Hotel Plans Stall With Lawsuit Involving Development Partner

Some of Retailer’s Hotel Development Sites Were Replaced With New Operators https://product.costar.com/home/news/1613864686?tag=1 By Katie Burke CoStar News July 22, 2020 | 09:09 AM Home furnishings retailer West Elm’s plans to enter the hospitality industry by building at least six hotels across the country appear to have hit a snag amid delays and legal battles, threatening its attempt to follow other chains in developing commercial property beyond stores. The retailer, known for its upscale, midcentury-modern styles, had been working with developers nationwide in recent years on sites that were initially set to be future West Elm Hotels. However, those planned in Oakland, California; Detroit and Indianapolis have been replaced with another boutique hotel operator, according to the developers. And West Elm’s projects in Portland, Maine; Savannah, Georgia; and Minneapolis have not materialized, though initial announcements outlined openings beginning this year. Neither New York City-based West Elm nor its parent company, Williams-Sonoma Inc. of San Francisco, responded to requests for comment from CoStar News. Rampant competition in the sector among corporate stalwarts such as Marriott, Hilton and the InterContinental Hotels Group made it challenging for newcomers to build their brand, even before the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the global hospitality industry. “It is very…

Luxury Hotel Seized in Malaysian Financial Case Heads to Auction in Posh Beverly Hills

Court to Sell Off California’s Viceroy L’Ermitage After Former Owner’s International Legal Troubles https://product.costar.com/home/news/shared/1827109742?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personalized&utm_content=p4 By Lou Hirsh CoStar News July 20, 2020 | 4:10 P.M. A luxury Beverly Hills, California, hotel that is popular with celebrities could be sold at a discount in a court-ordered auction next month, following what international law enforcement officials call a money laundering and bribery scheme they say involves former owner Jho Low. Brokerage firm Keen-Summit Capital Partners is seeking bids of at least $104 million for the 116-room Viceroy L’Ermitage Beverly Hills hotel, located at 9291 Burton Way near the well-known and expensive Rodeo Drive retail district, ahead of an auction scheduled Aug. 19. That price, at almost $900,000 a room, is roughly half of the record sale price that another luxury hotel garnered last year in a wealthy area that’s one of the nation’s strongest hotel markets. The court-appointed attorney and broker for the L’Ermitage hotel, which was seized in 2016 by federal authorities as part of an investigation into what the U.S. Department of Justice and Singapore government say is a money-laundering scheme involving Low, a Malaysian financier, said they have already fielded considerable buyer interest in the property. The site has been known for the past…

L’Ermitage Luxury Hotel Headed for Auction

Bidding will start at $104 million https://labusinessjournal.com/news/2020/jul/13/lermitage-luxury-hotel-headed-auction/ By Hannah Madans Monday, July 13, 2020 The Viceroy L’Ermitage Beverly Hills hotel could have a new owner soon. The luxury hotel, which was seized in a money laundering scandal involving financier Jho Low, will be sold at auction Aug. 19. Matthew Bordwin of real estate brokerage Keen-Summit Capital Partners, who is handling the sale, announced July 9 that a stalking horse bid of $100 million had been accepted by Michael Eidelman, special master appointed by the United States District Court for the Central District of California. The stalking horse bidder, Bordwin said, was a corporate entity. The company behind it is a confidential investor “with significant hospitality experience.” An open auction will take place Aug. 19 where the minimum bid starts at $104 million. Interested buyers must submit identification and financial information by Aug. 3. Bordwin said he could not speculate how much the property would end up selling for but expects it to generate significant interest. “It was an interesting time for us to come to market in the middle of Covid,” Bordwin said. “The hospitality market is taking a beating. We found that this is a unique trophy property and a…

Famous hotel is for sale — while ex-owner’s on the lam

L’Ermitage in Beverly Hills will fetch at least $100 million By Roger Vincent https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-07-10/court-ordered-sale-viceroy-lhermitage-beverly-hills-hotel Bidding has commenced in an auction of the Viceroy L’Ermitage Beverly Hills, a legendary hotel last owned by a highflying Malaysian investor now on the lam after being accused of embezzling billions of dollars from his country’s government. The low-key boutique hotel has been known as a celebrity haunt for decades, where the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier have bunked for the night and dined in its fancy French restaurant. It will sell for at least $100 million, federal representatives said Thursday, or perhaps more at an auction set for Aug. 19. Since it opened in 1975, the L’Ermitage has had a series of owners — most recently the U.S. government, which moved to seized it in 2016 from Malaysian financier Jho Low. Federal investigators said Low bought the hotel and other properties, including a Hollywood Hills mansion, with money embezzled from a Malaysian government-owned fund intended to spur economic development in the Southeast Asian country. In 2012, Low turned heads when he dropped a whopping $38.98 million on his Hollywood Hills estate, redefining what a home could sell for in the…

Contact details

Recent Listings