Phoenix developer invests $100M to buy and renovate iconic resort

Article originally posted on Phoenix Business Journal on October 2, 2024

Phoenix-based Pivotal Group is investing $100 million to purchase and renovate the Hilton Phoenix Resort at the Peak, an iconic property developed in 1977.

Peak Hotel LLC, an entity linked to Pivotal Group, paid $39.5 million for the property in a sale that closed Oct. 1, according to Tempe-based real estate database Vizzda LLC. Pivotal acquired the resort from New York-based Fortress Investment Group, which had purchased the property for $51.35 million in 2019.

When Gosnell Development Corp. built the property at 7677 N. 16th St., it was named The Pointe at Squaw Peak. Gosnell also built The Pointe at Tapatio Cliffs and The Pointe at South Mountain in Phoenix.

The properties changed hands over the years, with McLean, Virginia-based Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HLT) buying the Pointe Hilton at Squaw Peak for $94 million in 1999, after rebranding and managing it since 1991. Hilton also had purchased the sister Pointe resorts. Virginia-based Park Hotels & Resorts Inc. (NYSE: PK) bought the Pointe at Squaw Peak in 2000, then later sold it to Fortress.

By 2020, public pressure decrying the Squaw Peak name as racist caused a name change to Hilton Phoenix Resort at the Peak. The city of Phoenix had changed the name of the Squaw Peak mountain in 2003 to Piestewa Peak, after Lori Piestewa, the first Native American woman to die in combat in the Iraq War.

Pivotal Group will maintain the property name as Hilton Phoenix Resort at the Peak, said Julia Najafi, principal and vice president of real for Pivotal Group.