The owner of the new Four Seasons hotel in California’s Napa Valley is negotiating a sale that would represent one of the highest valued hotel transactions ever, signaling a demand for smaller luxury resorts even as the broader industry struggles.
Real-estate fund manager Alcion Ventures developed the 85-room resort in Calistoga, Calif., over a 10-year period and is now marketing it through real-estate broker and investment bank Eastdil Secured.
A handful of hotel and real-estate investors have made competing offers of more than $170 million, according to hotel brokers. The Irvine, Calif.-based Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc. is among the bidders, say people familiar with the matter.
That purchase price would translate into a valuation of more than $2 million a key, which would make it one of the most expensive hotel acquisitions in history.
Hotel owners like to measure sales on a price-per-key metric, which enables them to compare properties of different size and room count. The highest valued U.S. hotel transaction ever was the 2018 sale of Edition hotel in Manhattan’s Times Square, which went for nearly $3.4 million a roomkey, according to lodging data tracker STR. Only two other U.S. hotels sold for more than $2 million a key, STR said.
