Prudential in No Rush to Sell Ritz-Carlton : Real estate: To diversify, insurance firm will market some landmark holdings, but not its Dana Point resort.

Prudential Insurance Co. of America said Tuesday that it will sell some of its landmark U.S. properties, but one of its prize possessions--the five-star Ritz-Carlton hotel in Dana Point--won’t be put on the block.

The nation’s largest life insurer is reviewing its $5.5-billion real estate portfolio--including the Chicago Hilton and Towers, NationsBank Tower in Dallas and the Prudential Center in Boston--with an eye toward replacing some of its convention hotels and office buildings with warehouses, manufacturing plants and apartments, a Prudential spokesman said.

“We’re reviewing everything in our portfolio, and we intend to put properties on the market, although we haven’t decided which ones,” Prudential spokesman Rick Matthews said.

About half of the company’s portfolio is invested in office buildings, and commercial real estate values have plummeted during the recent recession.

Now the Newark, N.J., insurer wants to diversify.

Prudential took over 90% of the Ritz-Carlton in a 1986 foreclosure, and the resort hotel has grown into one of the major success stories among luxury hotels, said Donald Wise, first vice president of CB Commercial Real Estate in Anaheim.

Prudential spent $6.7 million to renovate the hotel’s 393 rooms two years ago. In August, the company bought the remaining 10% for $14 million to own the hotel outright.

“All of our assets are considered for sale,” said a spokesman for Prudential Realty Group, a division that manages Prudential’s real estate. “But this one isn’t being actively marketed for 1996.”

Wise said the hotel’s strong cash flow and its unique location on the coast make it a popular destination resort hotel.

Were Prudential to put it on the block, he said, the Ritz-Carlton would fetch bids from 15 to 20 potential buyers in the United States and around the Pacific Rim.

“It has been an extremely well-performing hotel,” Wise said. “It had a bit of rocky start with the foreclosure in its infancy, but it’s become a real hit with locals and a real success story among high-end hotels.”

Bloomberg Business News contributed to this report.