OAKLAND — A high-profile hotel in downtown Oakland has been put up for sale, a deal that could shed light on the health of the hospitality industry amid ongoing economic uncertainties that the coronavirus has spawned.
Oakland Marriott City Center, a landmark in Oakland’s central business district, is being offered to the market through a formal sales effort, according to a brochure being circulated by a veteran commercial real estate firm.
A price for the high-rise hotel wasn’t listed in the marketing package being floated by Eastdil Secured.
The hotel totals 500 rooms and is adjacent to the Oakland Convention Center and a block away from the Broadway and 12th Street BART station.
“The hotel provides immediate access to the nearby tech cluster in Uptown Oakland, Jack London Square, the San Francisco central business district, both the Oakland and San Francisco international airports, and Silicon Valley,” Eastdil stated in its marketing brochure.
Oakland Marriott City Center, at 1001 Broadway between 10th Street and 11th Street, is being placed on the market at a time of brisk activity for the purchase of hotels in California.
“The hotel benefits from an extensive recent redesign and capital improvement program, and its proximity to a vibrant restaurant and social scene, and the historic Fox and Paramount theaters,” Eastdil said in the offering package.
The current owner of the hotel is an affiliate of Los Angeles-based Gaw Capital, a real estate investment firm with a nationwide reach.
The hotel is also directly connected to the George P. Scotlan Memorial Convention Center, which features 64,100 square feet of event and exhibit space along with a 575-stall parking garage.
“The Oakland Marriott City Center is the only full-service hotel in downtown Oakland,” Eastdil stated.
With 500 rooms, the hotel is able to accommodate extended-stay guests or large groups that nearby hotels can’t readily serve because they are too small.
“These groups have been a strategic alternative business during the pandemic and will continue as the Bay Area fully recovers,” Eastdil stated in the marketing materials.
The hotel is on the market at a time when it appears that investors hunger for hotels statewide.
“It is a great time to be selling a hotel,” said Alan Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group, which tracks the California lodging market, said when asked about the prospects for selling the downtown Oakland hotel.
Irvine-based Atlas Hospitality is putting the finishing touches on a report about purchasing activity for hotels in California.
The number of hotels that were bought in California during 2021 represented an all-time record at 498 individual hotels sold.
“Before 2021, we never had a year when more than 400 hotels were sold” in California, Reay said.
The dollar volume for hotel purchases in California in 2021 wasn’t an all-time record — but it represented a major rebound from 2020, a year marred by wide-ranging business shutdowns and a collapse of the global travel industry that chased away conventions and air travelers.
Investors paid a combined $9.5 billion for hotels in California during 2021, a huge jump from the $3.2 billion in hotel deals in 2020, according to Atlas Hospitality’s upcoming report.
“There is tremendous buyer interest in California hotels,” Reay said.
