Airport Hilton sold to new owners for $1.25 million

BURBANK — Strategic Hotels and Resorts sold the Hilton Burbank Airport & Convention Center for $125 million to the Pyramid Advisors, officials announced Thursday.

The price of the 488-room facility broke down to about $256,000 per room, said Robert Balmer, general manager for the Hilton Burbank Airport & Convention Center.

Supervision of day-to-day hotel operations will remain in the hands of the current Hilton management team, even after the close of the sale, which is expected at the end of next week, Balmer said.

“It’s business as usual,” he said.

“Hilton is going to continue managing and we just want the community to know that we’re still Hilton and we’ll be taking care of all of our guests in the same manner. It’s really going to be seamless for our guests.”

Strategic decided to sell off its Burbank Hilton property in order to pursue investment opportunities that are more consistent with company goals, Chief Financial Officer James Mead said.

“Strategic is a very invasive, constructive, active owner and we prefer hotels where we can add a lot of value, both by the investment capital and also from an operative standpoint,” he said. “We’ve owned this hotel for a while and developed a convention center next to the hotel; it’s been through a long and very successful investment for us. It’s just time for us to move out of that hotel and into something that enables us to provide the additional value-add that we do.”

More than half of Strategic’s ownership portfolio is located in California, with Southern California locations including the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel, the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego and the Hyatt Regency in La Jolla, he said.

Pyramid’s other holdings include the Fisherman’s Wharf Hilton in San Francisco and Sheridan Hotel in San Diego.

“They have a reputation of running very high-end hotels,” Burbank Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Gary Olson said. “This is a fairly significant sale.”

Pyramid company officials will issue a comment about their plans for the property when the sale closes, which is expected late next week, said Tico Bevier, vice president of transitions.

The Hilton Burbank Airport & Convention Center, located across from the Bob Hope Airport, was built in the early 1980’s by original owner Lew Wolfe, who has since been involved with the construction of larger hotels near the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Olson said.