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By Lori
Weisberg, The
San Diego
Union-Tribune June 21, 2011 The La Valencia Hotel in La Jolla is
among the San Diego trophy properties that
For
the rest of the story including deailed chart of hotel sales through
May 2011 along with photo gallery of properties please
visit: have attracted the attention of investors. — James Greggn Hotels Much like earnest shoppers chasing
bargains at an after-Christmas sale, hotel
investors have gone on a buying spree in recent months, scouring major
markets like San Diego for deals
they can nab before prices
escalate beyond their reach.
Tony properties like the W and Sè hotel in downtown San Diego, both saddled with heavy debt, were sold this year, as were much lesser known, mid-scale suburban hotels in areas like Rancho Peñasquitos and Sorrento Mesa. While the hospitality sector was battered badly during the Great Recession, today the market is on the rebound as leisure and business travelers once again open up their wallets for hotel stays. In San Diego, revenues per room are up nearly 8 percent from a year earlier, while occupancies have risen close to 4 percent, according to Smith Travel Research. At the same time, hotels that were purchased or refinanced when the economy was booming have seen their values plummet far below what is owed, leaving their owners with little choice but to default as their mortgages came due. That confluence of circumstances has buyers, from private hotel investors to publicly traded real estate investment trusts with money to burn, eager to snap up assets they believe will eventually deliver a healthy return on their investment. “Pricing was pretty frothy in 2006 and 2007, and we weren’t buying hotels then, so we missed out on a lot of deals but we refused to overpay, said Len Howell, vice president of hospitality acquisitions for San Diego-based Pacifica Host Hotels, which is in the process of buying the La Valencia Hotel in La Jolla, a considerable coup for the company’s growing portfolio. “Values now have definitely come down, and we have cash we want to place, and we’re looking to grow. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/jun/17/hotel-investors-buying-spree-san-diego/ |
Contact: Lori Weisberg, Staff Writer San Diego Union-Tribune 350 Camino de la Reina San Diego, CA 92102 619-293-2251 [email protected] |