Twenty-two hotels sold last year in Orange County for $807 million, or 19% fewer properties for a 54% lower proceeds total, according to Atlas Hospitality Group in Irvine.
The year-end report from the hotel consultant and broker, though, shows a slight boost in average and median prices per room for hotels that sold, partly a reflection of the prominent properties that changed hands.
The 396-room Ritz Carlton, Laguna Niguel in Dana Point, for instance, was the largest and most expensive OC hotel that got a new owner. Blackstone Group LLC in New York sold it in September for about $366 million to Anbang Insurance Group Co. in China, in a $6.6 billion portfolio deal that also included Montage Laguna Beach, which sold for about $243 million.
The 306-room Hilton Irvine/Orange County Airport also sold in September to a China-based buyer for about $80 million.
The declines mirror a tightening market for hotel sales in California and the overall industry.
Atlas projected at the start of last year that statewide sales volume would fall 20% to 30%; it was down 30%. This year it forecasts a decline of 10% to 20%.
Development continues apace in the county, however. Atlas’ 2016 report released last month shows about the same number of rooms under construction and coming online in OC—1,655 rooms now compared with 1,808 this time last year—and 40 hotels with 8,808 rooms in some stage of planning.
—Paul Hughes
