Costa Mesa-based Tarsadia Hotels solidified its position as a power player in Orange County’s hotel market with the top two hotel deals in the county last year, based on sale price: the purchases of the Anaheim Marriott and the Hyatt Regency Alicante in Garden Grove.
Here is a look at each of the four largest hotel deals in 1999:
ANAHEIM MARRIOTT HOTEL
700 W. Convention Way
Anaheim
Rooms: 1,087
Seller: Lend Lease Corp.
Sellers Agent: Eastdil Realty
Buyer: Tarsadia Hotels
Selling Price: $75.2 million
The sale of the Anaheim Marriott to Tarsadia by Sydney, Australia-based Lend Lease Corp. was the biggest hotel deal in the county last year at $75.2 million.
The hotel,the second largest in OC according to the most recent Business Journal list,is managed by Marriott International under a long-term contract. A $15 million renovation of the property is under way.
As a convention-oriented facility just a block from Disneyland and across the street from the expanded Anaheim Convention Center slated for completion late this year, the Anaheim Marriott is ideally positioned to take advantage of both new convention business and Disney’s second gate, California Adventure, that will debut in early 2001.
HYATT ALICANTE
100 Plaza Alicante
Garden Grove
Rooms: 396
Seller: Gateway Properties
Selling Price: $30 million
The $30 million deal for the 396-room Hyatt Regency Alicante by Tarsadia Hotels was completed last February. At the same time, Tarsadia purchased an adjoining office building that it planned to convert into a 280-suite hotel.
The office building and hotel, at the corner of Harbor Blvd. and Chapman Avenue in Garden Grove, are linked by a 10-story atrium. The combination of the existing hotel and office building conversion would create the fourth-largest hotel property in OC, according to the Business Journal’s most recent list.
Tarsadia initially indicated it would sink $25 million into the renovation; company officials now say the total amount will be $35 million and will bring the combined room total to 700 with 60,000 square feet of meeting space.
The two purchases gave Tarsadia about 14% of Anaheim’s 2,200 hotel rooms. The company’s goal is to be positioned in the Anaheim market with a variety of hotel brands, prices and configurations that can be booked through a central reservations center by the time the new Disney park opens next year.
BUENA PARK HOTEL &
CONVENTION CENTER
(renamed Radisson Resort at Knott’s Berry Farm)
7675 Crescent Ave.
Buena Park
Rooms: 320
Seller: Montgomery/Highland Corp.
Buyer: Cedar Fair LP
Selling Price: $17.5 million
Cedar Fair, parent company of Knott’s Berry Farm, purchased the 320-room Buena Park Hotel & Convention Center in a move that will more closely align the configuration of Knott’s to the resort atmosphere of Cedar Fair’s signature park, Cedar Point, in Sandusky, Ohio. The hotel, which has since been remodeled and rechristened the Radisson Resort at Knott’s Berry Farm, allows Knott’s to offer vacation packages that include a stay at the hotel.
In addition to the purchase price, Cedar Fair invested $10.5 million in the hotel’s renovation.
The hotel sits on land adjacent to the 160-acre amusement park, and was the last property along the park’s Crescent Avenue frontage that the company did not own.
HOLIDAY INN COSTA MESA
3131 S. Bristol St.
Costa Mesa
Rooms: 233
Seller: Linquist & Craig Hotels & Resorts
Buyer: Hanford Hotels
Selling Price: $13.3 million
Newport Beach-based Hanford Hotels purchased the Holiday Inn Costa Mesa, on Bristol Street at the San Diego (I-405) Freeway, in December for $13.3 million. The company plans a $5 million renovation of the 233-room property that was built in 1973. Plans call for a revamped fa & #231;ade and replacing room balconies with floor-to-ceiling windows. The lobby, restaurant and lounge will also be remodeled. Renovations are expected to be complete by fall.
Hanford Hotels, a 30-year-old private company, developed the Sixpence Inns in the ’70s, but subsequently sold those to the Motel 6 chain. In the mid-’90s, the company returned to the lodging business and has a portfolio of six properties besides the Holiday Inn, including Anaheim Hills, Buena Park and Tustin as well as three properties in Northern California.
Los Angeles County laid claim to three of the top four hotel deals in Southern California last year, capped by the sale of the 1,046-room Century Plaza Hotel last February for $260 million.
Other LA deals included the 300-room Miramar Sheraton in Santa Monica, which sold for $90.6 million, the 297-room Beverly Hills Le Meridien, which changed hands for a price tag of $82.3 million last summer, and the Crowne Plaza Los Angeles, which sold for $55 million last fall.
The only San Diego property to crack the top 10 Southern California sales in 1999 was the sale of the 419-room Hyatt Regency La Jolla for $140 million.
Atlas Hospitality Group furnished the sales data used in this report.
