In what is the single biggest hotel sale so far this year, the 394-room Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines resort has been acquired for $165 million by a Los Angeles-based investment firm that owns no other hotels in San Diego.
JRK Property Holdings, a real estate company that focuses largely on multi-family housing, was drawn to San Diego because of its stature as a lucrative hospitality market. But the real draw was the Hilton property, given its highly desirable location near the coast, said executive Shaan Bhatia.
It also helped that JRK had $350 million in investor money still sitting in a separate hospitality fund waiting to be spent.
“The Hilton was on the market, and we’d been hunting,” said Bhatia, who is head of hotel investment for JRK. “San Diego is in our view one of the major growth markets, and there’s a very strong life sciences corridor next to this hotel that makes this a very strong long-term bet to make. It’s also in a sub-market where there’s no new supply coming in.”
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While the hotel’s last major renovation was a decade ago, there have since been “patchwork” refreshes, Bhatia said.
The hotel, with rooms overlooking the Torrey Pines Golf Course and Pacific Ocean, continues to do well financially, but JRK still plans to eventually invest $30 million in property upgrades, although those specific plans have yet to be finalized, Bhatia said.
“Over time, the property will need some level of upgrade, particularly the rooms,” he conceded. “But the property still performs extremely well and outperforms almost all of the local competitors in the aggregate because of its location and brand. We’re working through our plan right now but over time there should be a relatively comprehensive renovation.”
Selling the hotel was Braemer Hotels and Resorts, which noted in a news release that the sale enabled it to pay off the last of its remaining debt maturities in 2024. JRK will not own the resort property itself as the Hilton Hotel sits on city-owned land. There are 63 years remaining on the hotel’s lease with the city, Bhatia said.
While JRK used a portion of its hospitality fund to help finance the Hilton purchase, a loan was still needed, Bhatia said. High interest rates have been a key factor fueling a downturn in hotel sales statewide. Bhatia, however, pointed out that his firm was able take advantage of more favorable loans via the commercial mortgage-backed security market. In the case of the Hilton acquisition, the company put in one-third equity and took out a loan on the balance, Bhatia said.
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With the purchase of the La Jolla hotel, JRK will now own a total of 1,500 hotel rooms, including the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs, the Oceana Santa Monica, five properties in south Austin, and two in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Bhatia said.
Emmy Hise, senior director of Hospitality Analytics for the commercial real estate firm CoStar, pointed out that while the Hilton Torrey Pines is among the priciest sales in the Western U.S., the price paid per room is less than comparable sales in the area.
“The Hilton is the highest-priced hotel transaction in the San Diego market since 2022,” she said, “but the price per key (room) is lower than similar hotel types that traded in the area in the past five years. This is likely due to the needed capital expenditures or required property improvement plans.”
The 35-year-old Torrey Pines property, which at one time was owned by Hilton, last changed hands in 2013 when Braemar purchased it from Ashford Hospitality Trust as part of an eight-hotel portfolio. Ashford serves as the adviser to both the Hospitality Trust and Braemar. The last time the hotel was sold by itself was in 2003 when it commanded a price of $106.5 million.
“When you look at the price they paid per room — $418,000 — that’s still below replacement cost, and it would be extremely difficult to replace this hotel, because of its location and the fact you have to deal with the Coastal Commission,” said Alan Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group. “So I think it’s a very good acquisition for the buyer. San Diego is still one of the best performing markets in California.”
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Nonetheless, hotel sales in California, Reay said, remain down compared to a year ago, but the decline has more to do with a disconnect between what hotel owners think their properties should sell for and the dollar figure that buyers are willing to pay.
Three thoughts after San Diego State’s 41-20 loss to Utah State on Saturday afternoon at Maverik Stadium.
1. Historically slow starts
Slow starts have plagued SDSU’s “AztecFAST” offense. The Aztecs have not scored on their opening drive in any of their 11 games this season.
Only three times have they had a drive of more than five plays. The shortest possession was two weeks ago, when quarterback Danny O’Neil was intercepted on the second play.
Only twice have they had a drive of more than 20 yards. Both of those possessions ended with the ball turned over on downs following failed fourth-down plays.
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Eight possessions ended with punts. Average drive: five plays, 16 yards.
The opening-drive drought looked like it was going to end against the Aggies. SDSU reached the red zone in four plays. O’Neil, who has been slowed by a knee injury most of the season, made the biggest play with his legs. A 34-yard rush up the middle marks his longest carry of the season.
There was something else unusual about the drive — it included three passes to tight end Mikey Harrison, who had not been targeted that many times in eight of 10 games, let alone one drive, this season.
SDSU had a first-and-goal at the 10-yard line, then moved back 10 yards because of a holding penalty. Two passes advanced the ball to the 2-yard line. Running back Marquez Cooper got one yard on third-and-2. On fourth down, O’Neil threw a screen pass to Harrison that lost three yards.
And the Aztecs came up empty. Again.
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“(O’Neil) got us off to a good start,” SDSU coach Sean Lewis said. “Obviously, we didn’t finish down there at the goal line. Again, that’s been an Achilles’ heel for us, to be able to punch the ball in in those short-yardage situations.
“We’ve got to do a better job there as we continue to move forward.”
Saturday night’s game against Air Force represents the last chance for the Aztecs to score on their first possession. In an online search dating back 25 years, SDSU never went an entire season without scoring on its opening drive.
2. Flags flying
The Aztecs are a game away from being the most penalized team in the nation, a distinction they currently share with Mountain West peer New Mexico.
Both schools have been whistled for 103 penalties, an average of 9.4 per game.
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It all began with 16 infractions in the season opener against Texas A&M-Commerce. There have been eight or nine penalties in five games this season, with SDSU avoiding double digits since making 12 penalties in Week 3 at Cal.
Then came another dozen at Utah State. Included were five false starts, something that usually works itself out well before this stage of the season.
“A majority of them were on the offensive line, where we’ve been banged up,” Lewis said of a unit where half a dozen players have been hobbled. “There’s a lot of people there playing in different spots as we’re rolling through it. So, again, there’s got to be continuity, there’s got to be consistency within that group up front, so that you can have confidence that you can play together.
“When there’s any sort of doubt … it leads to hesitation. When you’re playing hesitant and you’re not playing confident, you’re not tied together.”
It was the fourth time this season SDSU has been penalized more than 100 yards in a game. UTSA (945 penalty yards) is the only team in the country with more penalty yards than the Aztecs (933).
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3. ‘We aren’t doing our jobs’
Cooper was in no mood to celebrate after the game, despite becoming the 23rd player in NCAA history to go over 5,000 career rushing yards.
The Aztecs squandering a 13-point lead and allowing 41 unanswered points had something to do with that.
“I can’t be jumping with joy because we just got whooped,” Cooper said after the game.
With less than two minutes remaining in the second quarter, Utah State was being being shut out. Somehow, the Aggies had a 14-13 lead at halftime. They added four more TDs after intermission to win convincingly.
What changed?
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“They didn’t do anything differently, honestly,” said Cooper, adding, “Guys got to do their jobs. We aren’t doing our jobs. That’s been the case all season long. The coaches tell us something, and we’ll do the opposite thing. That’s unfortunate. It isn’t the coaches’ fault. It’s 100 percent on the players. We’ve got to do our job.”
Forecasters through the U.S. issued warnings that another round of winter weather could complicate travel leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday, while California and Washington state continue to recover from storm damage and power outages.
In California, where a person was found dead in a vehicle submerged in floodwaters on Saturday, authorities braced for more precipitation while grappling with flooding and small landslides from a previous storm.
The National Weather Service office in Sacramento, California, issued a winter storm warning for the state’s Sierra Nevada for Saturday through Tuesday, with heavy snow expected at higher elevations and wind gusts potentially reaching 55 mph (88 kph). Total snowfall of roughly 4 feet (1.2 meters) was forecast, with the heaviest accumulations expected Monday and Tuesday.
The Midwest and Great Lakes regions will see rain and snow Monday and the East Coast will be the most impacted on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, forecasters said.
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A low pressure system is forecast to bring rain to the Southeast early Thursday before heading to the Northeast. Areas from Boston to New York could see rain and breezy conditions, with snowfall possible in parts of northern New Hampshire, northern Maine and the Adirondacks. If the system tracks further inland, there could be less snow and more rain in the mountains, forecasters said.
“The system doesn’t look like a powerhouse right now,” Hayden Frank, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Massachusetts, said Sunday. “Basically, this is going to bring rain to the I-95 corridor so travelers should prepare for wet weather. Unless the system trends a lot colder, it looks like rain.”
Frank said he isn’t seeing any major storm systems arriving for the weekend anywhere in the country so travelers heading home Sunday can expect good driving conditions. Temperatures, however, will get colder in the East while warming up out West.
Deadly ‘bomb cyclone’ on West Coast
Earlier this week, two people died when the storm arrived in the Pacific Northwest. Hundreds of thousands lost power, mostly in the Seattle area, before strong winds moved through Northern California. A rapidly intensifying “ bomb cyclone ” that hit the West Coast on Tuesday brought fierce winds that resulted in home and vehicle damage.
Rescue crews in Guerneville, California, recovered a body inside a vehicle bobbing in floodwaters around 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Sonoma County Sheriff’s Deputy Rob Dillion said, noting the deceased was presumed to be a victim of the storm but an autopsy had not yet been conducted.
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Santa Rosa, California, saw its wettest three-day period on record with about 12.5 inches (32 centimeters) of rain by Friday evening, the National Weather Service in the Bay Area reported. Vineyards in nearby Windsor, California, were flooded on Saturday.
Tens of thousands without power in Seattle area
About 36,000 people in the Seattle area were still without electricity after this season’s strongest atmospheric river, a long plume of moisture that forms over an ocean and flows over land.
Northeast gets needed precipitation
Another storm brought rain to New York and New Jersey, where rare wildfires have raged in recent weeks, and heavy snow to northeastern Pennsylvania. The precipitation was expected to help ease drought conditions after an exceptionally dry fall.
“It’s not going to be a drought buster, but it’s definitely going to help when all this melts,” said Bryan Greenblatt, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Binghamton, New York.
Heavy snow fell in northeastern Pennsylvania, including the Pocono Mountains. Higher elevations reported up to 17 inches (43 centimeters), with lesser accumulations in valley cities including Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. Around 35,000 customers in 10 counties are still without power, down from 80,000 a day ago.
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Precipitation in West Virginia helped put a dent in the state’s worst drought in at least two decades and boosted ski resorts preparing to open their slopes in the weeks ahead.
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Associated Press writer Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, contributed to this report.
AAA projects that 79.9 million Americans will go 50 miles or more away from home over the Thanksgiving holidays.
BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Toreros -2; over/under is 146.5
BOTTOM LINE: San Diego hosts Idaho after Kjay Bradley Jr. scored 27 points in San Diego’s 72-67 loss to the Southern Utah Thunderbirds.
The Toreros are 1-4 in home games. San Diego is 1-1 in games decided by 10 or more points.
The Vandals are 0-2 on the road. Idaho is sixth in the Big Sky scoring 35.3 points per game in the paint led by Julius Mims averaging 8.0.
San Diego scores 70.0 points per game, 7.3 fewer points than the 77.3 Idaho allows. Idaho averages 9.3 made 3-pointers per game this season, 0.9 more makes per game than San Diego allows.
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TOP PERFORMERS: Bradley is scoring 19.6 points per game and averaging 2.8 rebounds for the Toreros.
Mims is averaging 12.3 points and seven rebounds for the Vandals.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
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