 The main pool and the back of the Westin La Paloma. The resort and another resort in South Carolina sold for 230.5 million, last week. |
The rapidly growing hotel portfolio of Tucson-based NCH Corp.-Transwest Corp. took its single biggest leap with the acquisition of two Westin properties, including the Westin La Paloma Resort and Spa, from the Starwood Capital Group.
Ashford Hospitality Trust and JPMorgan announced that between the two of them they provided $230.5 million in financing for the acquisition. The other property included in the transaction was the Westin Resort Hilton Head Island in Hilton Head, S.C.
The debt service coverage ratio at closing is about 1.07 times net cash flow from the two properties, based on the previous 12 months, according to Ashford Hospitality Trust.
The La Paloma resort, 3800 E. Sunrise Drive, opened in January 1986. It has 487 rooms and 80,000 square feet of meeting space on 175 acres in the central Catalina Foothills. It also features a 27-hole Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf course, six swimming pools, and an Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa.
The resort will continue to operate as a Westin property but NCH-Transwest officials have said they plan to spend additional money renovating the facility. The guest rooms have not been upgraded in several years. In June of this year, the resort opened a new meeting banquet room, called the Sonoran Room in an area off the lobby that had housed retail shops.
One of the features on the Sonoran Room is that is line with paldao wood, all of which came from one large tree in Indonesia. The wood was shipped to the United States where it was milled, numbered and sent to the resort. The wood pieces were installed in a predetermined fashion to creat a dramatic pattern.
La Paloma has operated from day one as a Westin property but when it first opened, it was owned by David Mehl and his late brother George Mehl, developers of the larger La Paloma project in the Foothils that includes homes, apartments and a country club.
The Mehls sold the resort several years later to the Aoki Corp., the Japan-based company that owned Westin. Aoki became part of the Starwood Capital Group in 1994.
NCH-Transwest’s other acquistion in the deal, is a 412-room resort on 14 acres of beachfront property that was opened in 1985.
Other hotels operated by NCH Corp.’s Premier Hotel Group are Doubletree Hotel at Reid Park, 445 S. Alvernon Way; La Posada Lodge and Casitas, 5900 N. Oracle Road; Hampton Inn and Suites Tucson Mall, 5950 N. Oracle Road; TownePlace Suites by Marriott Tucson, 405 W. Rudasill Road; Embassy Suites Tucson Williams Center, 5335 E. Broadway; Embassy Suites Phoenix Airport, 1515 N. 44th St., Phoenix; Hotel Peñasco Del Sol in Puerto Peñasco-Rocky Point, Sonora.
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