Washington Holdings Acquires St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort

Private real estate investment company Washington Holdings announced today it has acquired the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort in the upscale Southern California coastal community of Dana Point from an affiliate of Citigroup, Inc.

Washington Holdings, which invests in well positioned commercial real estate assets in the Western United States and currently holds both debt and equity interests in hotel properties representing more than 10,000 hotel rooms, purchased Citigroup's remaining equity interest in the 400-room luxury seaside resort.

The St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort is California's only Forbes Five-Star and AAA Five Diamond resort. Opened in 2001, the oceanfront hotel features 400 guestrooms and suites, an 18-hole Robert Trent Jones Jr. designed championship golf course, 65,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting space, award-winning restaurants and the 30,000 square foot Spa Gaucin.

"We believe in the long-term viability and success of this resort and are proud to add this world class asset to our portfolio," says Washington Holdings President and Chief Executive Officer Craig Wrench, whose firm along with an affiliate of Prudential Insurance Company of America held the $230 million first mortgage on the property. "Needless to say, it has been a challenging time for all real estate asset classes, including hospitality, but the hotel industry is in a very different place today than a year ago and there is strong evidence that hotel fundamentals are beginning to rebound."

In a report released this week, PKF Hospitality Research, the U.S. lodging expert, forecast that hospitality market conditions are expected to improve throughout 2010. PKF forecast that hotels will see double-digit revenue growth on a per-available-room basis (RevPAR) by 2012, the strongest growth in RevPAR in three decades.

The resort is managed by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. According to Starwood, the hotel continues to see a marked increase of both group and leisure business and expects this uptrend to continue into 2010. "It is business as usual at St. Regis Monarch Beach as the hotel continues to attract high profile guests and events. The resort will host the Dana Point Concours d' Elegance for the 3rd year in a row and resort wedding business continues to be robust with over 100 weddings booked for 2010," says Johnny So, the hotel's General Manager.

"The hotel and the staff have performed exceptionally well throughout the past year considering the economic headwinds," Wrench adds. "There's a lot of news these days about hotels tipping over because they are over-leveraged and have been hit hard by the downturn. This transaction substantially reduces property level debt so that the resort can be self sustaining. We're also committed to making some strategic investments in the resort so we can take full advantage of the recovering market."