Irvine-based Pacifica Hotels bought the Milner Hotel in downtown Los Angeles from Milner Hotels Inc. Pacifica is the hospitality arm of Santa Barbara real estate developer Invest West Financial Corp.
Milner’s website identified the seller as a Kentucky corporation and showed it operates hotels in Boston, Detroit, and Raleigh, N.C. Several properties are, like the L.A. hotel, in older downtown historic buildings.
The Milner—which ran under the Ritz Milner name but is unaffiliated with Marriott Corp.’s Ritz-Carlton chain—is on South Flower Street near Figueroa Boulevard, Staples Center and the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Hotel consultant Alan Reay of Atlas Hospitality Group in Irvine said Pacifica is likely to convert the Milner to its Wayfarer brand as part of a push into “urban hostels” that offer both “hotel-style” and “dorm-style” rooms with common areas.
“It’s a new concept for Pacifica, [and] I think they see tremendous opportunities,” Reay said. “The model has done well in New York and San Francisco … cater(ing) to … the sharing economy.”
Pacifica owns other L.A.-area hotels, including four coastal properties near Marina del Rey. It sold a Hilton Garden Inn there in September to Florida-based REIT Chatham Lodging Trust for about $45 million.
—Paul Hughes
