The Hotel Hanford, a boutique hotel in Costa Mesa that got a big renovation a few years ago, has traded hands.
3131 Bristol Property UC LLC, a Delaware-based entity, paid just under $23.8 million for the 228-room hotel located near South Coast Plaza, according to brokerage data.
The sale works out to price of about $104,000 per room for Hotel Hanford, one of several boutique hotels in Orange County that has been marketed for sale of late.
Hanford Hotels Inc., a Newport Beach-based private investment group headed up by Donald Sodaro and William Caine Jr., sold the property. It bought the hotel for a reported $13.3 million in 1999.
The group kicked off an estimated $7 million renovation of the hotel about three years ago. The renovation included turning the property from a Holiday Inn-branded hotel into the largest boutique hotel in Costa Mesa.
The hotel, located just south of the San Diego (405) Freeway along Bristol Street, had been seeing stronger business since the redo of the property, according to its prior owners.
Room revenue increased by 55% for a 12-month period ended in June, and food and beverage revenue nearly doubled over the prior period, Hanford Hotels officials said.
June’s earnings were the best for the hotel in nearly a year, and July was expected to exceed June’s levels, according to the prior owners, who sold the property last month.
“The decision to sell was tough, especially in light of The Hotel Hanford’s increased popularity,” Sodaro said. “We are extremely proud of what we accomplished.”
Urban Owners
According to Hanford Hotels officials, the LLC buying the hotel is affiliated with Urban Commons LLC, a Los Angeles-based real estate investor that counts a local office in Corona del Mar.
It’s the second local hotel in which Urban Commons is known to have invested.
The group paid a reported $26.3 million last year for Anaheim’s Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites, a 255-room property next to the Disneyland Resort and its Downtown Disney District shopping center.
At the time of the Anaheim purchase—its first hotel purchase—Urban Commons officials told the Business Journal they were looking to buy several others in the area.
Property records also show Wilton, Conn.-based investment manager Westport Capital Partners involved in the new ownership group.
Westport Capital, which has local offices in El Segundo, counts a few local properties in its real estate portfolio. Those include Mission Viejo’s Kaleidoscope shopping center, which it purchased in 2010 for $22 million.
Westport Capital also owns the Pacific Edge Hotel in Laguna Beach, one of two other area boutique hotels up for sale, along with the Shorebreak hotel in Huntington Beach. The latter is owned by Los Angeles-based real estate investor and developer CIM Group.
The 129-room Pacific Edge is expected to fetch a sale price in the $70 million range, while the 157-room Shorebreak could trade for close to $55 million.
The Pacific Edge—if it sold for an eye-popping $540,000-plus per room—would be the first prominent OC hotel to trade hands in nearly two years at a price of more than $500,000 per room.
CIM Group opened the Shorebreak about three years ago as part of its Strand mixed-use development at 5th Street and Pacific Coast Highway. The retail portion of the Strand, located one block north of Main Street and the Huntington Beach pier, also is on the market for sale.
Chapman Chair
Sodaro, following the sale of the Hotel Hanford, said he would focus on his other passions, which include serving as chairman of the board of trustees at Chapman University and devoting time to the Sodaro Estate Winery in Napa, which he runs with his wife Deedee.
His love of wines could be seen at the renovated Costa Mesa hotel, which included a wine salon among its other upscale amenities.
Caine said he planned to focus on his other business ventures, traveling and spending time with his children and grandchildren.
