Irvine Company sells Hotel Irvine for $135M

Hyatt Hotels features as buyer in second-priciest hospitality deal of the year in OC

Hyatt's Mark Hoplamazian with 17900 Jamboree Road (Hyatt Hotels, Trip.com)
Hyatt's Mark Hoplamazian with 17900 Jamboree Road (Hyatt Hotels, Trip.com)

Orange County’s largest landlord has sold the largest hotel in Irvine for $135 million.

The Irvine Company, based in Newport Beach, sold the 541-room Hotel Irvine at 17900 Jamboree Road, the Orange County Business Journal reported. The buyer was Hyatt Hotels, based in Chicago.

The deal for the 14-story property, two years after it closed because of the pandemic, comes out to $250,000 per room. It marked the second-highest hospitality deal of the year in OC by price.

Irvine had owned the hotel, located at its Jamboree Center office campus by the 405 Freeway, since it opened in 1985. The firm also recently sold its 295-room Fashion Island Hotel in Newport Beach for $145 million.

The Hotel Irvine will swing back to the Hyatt brand. It was known as the Hyatt Regency Irvine until 2013, when Irvine rebranded and renovated the property.

The 587,158-square-foot hotel, the only Hyatt-owned property in OC, is poised for another renovation. Hyatt plans to operate the property under the Hyatt Regency brand “after an extensive hotel-wide renovation,” the company said in a statement. Hyatt didn’t say when it would reopen.

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The Hyatt manages, but doesn’t own, the Hyatt House Irvine-John Wayne Airport and the Hyatt Regency John Wayne Airport in Newport Beach.

The Irvine Company now manages just one local hospitality property, the Resort at Pelican Hill, a 204-room luxury hotel in Newport Coast. The hotel has remained open through the pandemic.

In February, it sold the Fashion Island Hotel to a venture led by Eagle Four Partners, based in Newport Beach, for $145 million. It remains the biggest local hotel deal of the year, with a price per room of $487,000.

The Fashion Island Hotel, now in the middle of a full-scale renovation, is expected to reopen next year as the Pendry Newport Beach, a brand led by Montage International.

— Dana Bartholomew

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