Woodridge Capital Partners, Los Angeles, has agreed to buy the 591-room The Fairmont San Francisco hotel for US$200 million from Maritz, Wolff & Co., St. Louis, and Saudi prince and business mogul Al-Waleed bin Talal.
The sale comes after Maritz, Wolff & Co. was denied permission by the municipal government of San Francisco to convert the hotel building into residences. Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Toronto, is planned to continue managing the hotel.
Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that Woodridge is working with Oaktree Capital Management, Los Angeles, on the purchase.
The Fairmont San Francisco, which opened one year after the disastrous 1906 San Francisco earthquake, is located in the city’s Nob Hill neighborhood. The hotel has been used in the 1980s television show “Hotel” and as the site of a 1990 summit between U.S. President Ronald Reagan, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and South Korean President Roh Tae Woo.
California’s hotel transaction market is one of the hottest in the U.S. outside of New York City. The 2011 dollar volume of sales in California set a record, although in 2012 that figure is predicted to decline.