CEO, PRESIDENT, R.D. OLSON DEVELOPMENT, NEWPORT BEACH, CEO, R.D. OLSON CONSTRUCTION, IRVINE
California’s dominant hotel developer for over a decade. Since 2008, company has completed about 20 projects with nearly 3,000 rooms. Those projects have a value topping $2B.
THEN: None of his properties closed during the pandemic, though some operated with limited capacity. As travelers returned last summer, he said the biggest challenge is staffing up the properties.
“Leisure travel is out in force, like never before,” Olson, who was named the Business Journal’s Businessperson of the Year in 2019 following the opening of the Lido House boutique hotel in Newport Beach, as well as the Marriott Irvine Spectrum, said last year.
NOW: Said last year he’s on the hunt for new hotel opportunities after selling a trio of properties to locally based Dauntless Capital Partners. The three sales, two in Maui and one in Pasadena, sold for a combined $290M, sources told the Business Journal.
FUTURE: Along with a pair of hotels in the works at the revitalized Dana Point Harbor, he’s planning his first development in Arizona, at an 11-acre site along the river in Sedona. It’ll be a fivestar, bungalow-style retreat for leisure travelers, he said. A brand hasn’t been announced yet.
IN THEIR WORDS: “It’s an unequal market,” he says, noting challenging times for hotels catering to business travel, in central business districts, while the coastal leisure market thrives. “What matters most is the market and the product.”
