Makar bought the property from investors affiliated with DDRM Inc., the managing general partner and asset manager of the hotel. The new owner plans to reposition the property in a renovation program that will upgrade the guest rooms, ballrooms, meeting rooms and all public areas.

The 14-story hotel, at 777 W. Convention Way, is adjacent to the Anaheim Convention Center. It was built in 1984 and was renovated in 1996 and 1997. The property includes 107,000 sf of meeting space, six on-site food and beverage facilities, 14,000 sf of retail space, a 25,000-sf health club with basketball court and other amenities.

According to Paul Makarechian, president and CEO of Makar Properties, the renovation will be designed to enable the Anaheim Hilton to compete more effectively with other conference and convention hotels. The renovations will feature interior design of the guest rooms by Linda Snyder Associates Inc. and design of the interior public spaces by Creative Resource Associates.

Anaheim has continued to attract hotel investment through the years because of business and tourist draws like Disneyland and other attractions, including a number of deals in recent years in which hotel buyers spent substantially on refurbishing properties. Throughout the county, rising prices have been one of the factors driving construction of new hotels, with construction getting under way on 1,213 rooms in Orange County during 2006, according to figures from Irvine-based Atlas Hospitality Group.