Hyatt Hotels Buys Ventana Big Sur for $148M
The transaction clocks in at a record $2.5 million per-key price for a North American resort.
An affiliate of the Hyatt Hotels Corp. has acquired the Ventana Big Sur resort for $148 million, or $2.5 million per key, which is a record for a North American resort.
The seller was Geolo Capital, the private equity investment arm of the John Pritzker family office, and its joint-venture partner Wanxiang America Real Estate. They acquired the resort in 2015.
“We saw substantial unrealized value in controlling 59 of Big Sur’s 100 available full-service guestrooms and understood the potential to raise average daily rates following a comprehensive renovation, rebrand and repositioning,” said John Pritzker, Geolo founding partner and director, in prepared remarks.
Ventana Big Sur will continue to have the Alila brand, which Geolo acquired in 2014, attached to Ventana in 2017, and sold to Hyatt in 2018.
Among the changes Geolo put in place were a focus on experiential programming as well as a $23 million renovation.
Geolo’s six-year ownership of Ventana had its challenges, namely two major wildfires, three record-breaking mudslides and the Covid-19 pandemic. However at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Geolo saw the opportunity of marketing the resort’s remote location and re-opened as an all-inclusive property.