California Investment Firm Pays Record Price for Marriott-Branded Hotel in Phoenix Article originally posted on CoStar on February 16, 2023 Joint Venture Sells Upscale AC Hotel Marriott on Camelback Road for Nearly $68 Million The AC Hotels by Marriott Phoenix Biltmore hotel developed by Holualoa Companies and LaPour Partners opened in 2018. (CoStar) A Northern California investment firm paid a record price for the AC Hotel Biltmore by Marriott as investors keep scooping up high-end lodging properties across greater Phoenix. Nella Invest, based in Auburn, California, bought the 160-room hotel at 2811 E. Camelback Road for $67.8 million from Holualoa Companies and LaPour Partners, which developed the property in Phoenix’s exclusive Biltmore area as part of a mixed-use project in 2018, the sellers said in a statement. Holualoa Companies, based in Tucson, and LaPour Partners of Las Vegas sold the property for $423,750 per room, the highest per-room price on record for an upscale select-service hotel in greater Phoenix, CoStar data shows. The sale shattered the prior record of $326,633 per room paid by Arbor Lodging Partners of Chicago for another AC Hotels by Marriott property, a 199-room hotel in downtown Phoenix at 414 N. 5th St., according to CoStar. “The value per room speaks to the strength of the Marriott AC brand, the property’s prime location and beautiful design,” Lani Baker, chief financial officer of Holualoa Companies, said in the statement. The five-story hotel that attracted both leisure and business travelers includes a mix of traditional rooms and suites, according to the sellers. The property’s features include a fitness center, business center, pool, retail shop, laundry room and over 5,000 square feet of meeting space. The property is in central Phoenix, one of the region’s largest hotel submarkets with about 11,000 rooms across 51 properties, according to a CoStar Market Analytics report. The Camelback Corridor has luxury retail, upscale restaurants, nightlife and corporate offices along with some of the region’s most exclusive residential communities. More than half of the rooms in the area are classified as luxury or upper upscale properties, according to CoStar. Investors kept buying hotels in Phoenix last year despite rising interest rates that increased borrowing costs, according to CoStar. Buyers and seller completed more than $1.2 billion in hotel sales in 2022, the highest total since nearly $1.3 billion in properties traded in 2015, CoStar data shows.