The former chief executive of San Clemente-based Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc. left in a clash with the company’s board over the pace of acquisitions, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Art Buser, who joined as Sunstone’s president in 2008 and became chief executive in early 2009, abruptly stepped down on Friday.
Buser helped shed unwanted hotels by turning them over to lenders and oversaw the raising of some $400 million from stock sales to fund acquisitions.
In August, Sunstone acquired the Royal Palm hotel in Miami Beach. In July, it reacquired the Renaissance Westchester Hotel in upstate New York after it had stopped making debt payments on it in 2009.
But the company looked at “a number of transactions that we did not execute on that, in retrospect, we should have” closed on, Kenneth Cruse, Sunstone’s former chief financial officer and newly appointed president, told the Journal.
Buser declined to comment for the story.
Sunstone owns 31 hotels across the country, including the Fairmont Newport Beach.
Buser oversaw a dramatic time for Sunstone in which the company turned over several hotels to lenders after they became worth less than what was owed on them.
In 2009, Sunstone became the first publicly traded hotel owner in the downturn to hand back keys to a lender with the W Hotel in San Diego.
This year, Sunstone relinquished eight other hotels to lender Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co.
Sunstone parlayed the handover of the W and others into a larger strategy of shedding unwanted hotels as it sought to acquire others.
Nearly 1,000 U.S. hotels have sold so far this year for $12.1 billion, according to New York-based Real Capital Analytics. In 2009, 161 hotels traded hands for $2.8 billion
On a conference call Monday, Bob Alter, Sunstone’s founder, executive chairman and former chief executive, said the board took issue with Buser’s “role, style and conduct” and “a lack of making decisions quickly and staying with those decisions.”
Current executives and directors who are expanding their roles are set to take over Buser’s duties.
Cruse now is in line to become chief executive, according to analysts.
He’ll run the company alongside Alter, who’ll have “greater involvement in the execution of the company’s business plan,” according to Sunstone.
Alter started Sunstone in 1995 and served as chief executive until 2007.
Lew Wolff, co-chairman of Sunstone’s board, also is set to expand his role.
See the Wall Street Journal story here.
