Oakland Marriott City Center Finds Buyer at Foreclosure

The biggest hotel in Oakland has a new owner after a drawn-out default and foreclosure process.

Oakland Marriott City Center sold for $70.2 million in a foreclosure auction to an affiliate of global real estate investor Invesco, the San Francisco Business Times reported. Gaw Capital previously bought the building in 2017 for $143 million, or $286,000 per room at the 500-key lodging. The latest sale represents a 51 percent drop in value in less than a decade.

Gaw defaulted on a $100 million loan tied to the property earlier this year. In May 2024, Invesco became the beneficiary of the original 2017 loan from French financial firm Natixis. That loan was initially for $80 million but was refinanced to $100 million in 2019.

In addition to being a 500-room hotel in the heart of downtown Oakland, the 21-story building is home to the headquarters and practice facility of the Golden State Valkyries, the Bay Area’s new WNBA team. The hotel has 90,000 square feet of meeting space and is connected to the Oakland Convention Center, the largest corporate event venue in the East Bay.

Oakland has been the epicenter of a series of discount sales, foreclosures and closures at hotels over the past year. In January, the 145-room Waterfront Hotel in Jack London Square closed abruptly after 35 years in business. Also in January, lenders backing the Radisson Hotel Oakland Airport sued the owner, K&K Hotel Group affiliate Oakland Alameda Hotels led by K&K CEO Nupan Patel, to foreclose on the 289-room property.

Last October, Core Capital acquired the 162-room Courtyard Oakland Downtown for $10.6 million, down from the $43.8 million Gaw Capital paid for it in 2016. In July last year, the dual-branded AC Hotel and Residence Inn by Marriott Downtown Oakland defaulted on a $101 million loan only a year after opening.

— Chris Malone Méndez