Irvine Hotel Sold to ‘Offshore Investor’

Holiday Corp. said it sold its Embassy Suites hotel in Irvine near John Wayne Airport for $42.6 million.

The hotel company said it sold the 293-room hotel to “an offshore investor.” Holiday Corp. executives couldn’t be reached to elaborate.

The price represents an average $145,000 per room.

The company said its Embassy Suites Inc. unit will continue to manage the property.

The hotel opened in December, 1986, and a spokesman said it has reached and exceeded the break-even point for occupancy.

The hotel market around John Wayne Airport has suffered from an overabundance of rooms following a hotel-building spree from 1985 through 1987.

Most hotels in the area have had trouble keeping their rooms full, and, even more troublesome, room rates have stayed low.

That will probably change, said Sandra Louvier, a hotel expert at the accountanting firm of Laventhol & Horwath, who says a recent drop-off in hotel construction means that the market is “healing itself.”

Until it is healthy, however, hotel operators are having to pinch pennies by cutting operating costs at airport area hotels in order to make a profit, she said.