Archon Group, a Goldman Sachs company, had owned the resort hotel located in the town of Page, a tiny hamlet in northern Arizona, just miles from the Utah border and on the shores of Lake Powell. Archon Group sold the hotel, for an undisclosed price, to Flagstaff Mountain View Inc., a Flagstaff-based hotel operator/owner.

Flagstaff Mountain View, which operates a number of hotels in Flagstaff, a city of 50,000 about 130 miles south of Page and 130 miles north of Phoenix, plans to renovate the property over the next 18 months and re-flag the hotel as a Quality Inn.

"Arizona has been perceived as a weak market for lodging investment in the recent past due to significant overbuilding," says Stanley Kozlowski, a broker in the Newport Beach, CA. office of Insignia ESG, which represented the seller in the transaction. "However, due to the increased difficulty in financing new development, we believe existing property performance will continue to improve, making Arizona a viable investment target in the future."

Page is a resort community located at the southern end of Lake Powell, which attracts more than three million visitors a year. Lake Powell is part of the "Grand Circle," which includes Grand Canyon National Park 40 miles to the south, Zion Canyon National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Lake Powell National Recreation Area and the Navajo and Hopi Indian reservations.

The Newport Beach, CA office of Insignia/ESG's Hotel Partners division, with brokers Kozlowski and Richard Carlson, represented the seller in the transaction.