Palo Alto’s Epiphany Hotel Sells for $71.6MM 3/10
Palo Alto’s Epiphany Hotel Sells for $71.6MM
Sales of hotel properties in California reached a record dollar volume of more than $4.4 billion in the first six months of 2015, a 64 percent increase over the same period in 2014, according to Atlas Hospitality Group’s recently completed 2015 Mid-Year California Hotel Sales Survey. Median sales price per room increased 25 percent and 13 deals traded in $100 million-plus range versus four for the same period in 2014.
This week, one more sale will be added to the total tally of transactions. According to a report from the Silicon Valley Business Journal, Oracle’s co-founder, Larry Ellison, just acquired the 86-room Epiphany Hotel located at 180 Hamilton Avenue in Palo Alto for $71.6 million, or just over $832,000 per room.
To put this sale in perspective, the average Northern California hotel sale was nearly $21 million or $131,000 per room, which was a 13.74 percent increase over the year before, according to Atlas’ report.
International design firm STEINBERG, received a Grand Award from the Pacific Coast Builders Conference last year for the renovation project on this hotel. The former dilapidated Casa Olga, as it was known prior to the renovation, was an iconic residence that helped serve nearly 9,000 seniors and disabled persons over a 35-year span. The government budget cuts associated with the Great Recession reduced funding for the services provided by owners of the structure, and shortly thereafter, Casa Olga was forced to close and lay off as many as 70 employees, according to a report by Palo Alto online. The building features an iconic, six-story tile mosaic called El Palo Alto, the tall redwood tree after which the city was named.
The sellers were New York-based Angelo, Gordon & Co. who worked with Eastdil Secured on the transaction. Joie de Vivre, which has operated the hotel since its transformation, will continue to function in that role.
