Topic: TRIBE PAYS $45 MILLION FOR U.S. GRANT

[Rondo_GE]

I wonder what President Grant would have thought of all this?lol

I sort of think this is cool and refreshing news and should gladden anyone's day; here's a group of people we no longer have to think of as victim's anymore...of course that might come as a disappointment to some.

The Sycuan tribe is one of the most aggressive tribes.  They have already begun their expansion into the economy in various ways.  

Hey this is a 4 star hotel.  There's a Breuger's bagel shop on the floor level that I stop in occasionally on my way to work.  I'll provide the link but this is one of those "online newspaper" things and these articles have a tendency to disappear or get locked up.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20031204-9999_1b4grant.html


 


 
SYCUAN STEPS UP FOR STORIED HOTEL

By Michael Kinsman
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

December 4, 2003

NELVIN CEPEDA / Union-Tribune
The storied U.S. Grant Hotel has been purchased for $45 million by the Sycuan Band of Kumeyaay Indians, which hopes the downtown hotel will help diversify the tribe's economic base.
 
The storied U.S. Grant Hotel has been purchased for $45 million by the Sycuan Band of Kumeyaay Indians, which hopes the downtown hotel will help diversify the tribe's economic base.

The transaction was completed at midnight Tuesday, with Sycuan taking over yesterday morning from Wyndham International, a Dallas company that paid $29 million for the property 2½ years ago.

"We are tremendously proud to be able to purchase the U.S. Grant, which has a historical role in San Diego," Sycuan tribal chairman Daniel Tucker said. "We see this as another step in our diversification."

The tribe has a special reverence for the hotel's namesake, Ulysses S. Grant, who as U.S. president signed an executive order in 1875 setting aside lands in San Diego County exclusively for the Kumeyaay, including the Sycuan reservation in East County.

"We feel the hotel is a part of history, and we are part of that history, too," Tucker said.

The 170-member tribe also said it would spend an additional $10 million to renovate the 93-year-old hotel.

The stately hotel, directly across Broadway from Horton Plaza, has 284 rooms and a five-story parking garage.

The hotel has struggled for more than two decades with a succession of owners and operators trying to restore it to profitability. The hotel's occupancy rate is believed to be low for the downtown area.

Sycuan has been a leader among California Indian tribes in aggressively expanding business operations beyond its 900-acre reservation southeast of El Cajon, where it operates a successful gambling business.

In 2000, it purchased Singing Hills Country Club and a 104-room hotel three miles from the reservation. Last August, it proposed a $25 million hotel, restaurant and market near the National City waterfront. Last month the tribe launched a mutual fund to invest in stocks of large and medium-sized American companies.

The tribe had tried to acquire the naming rights to the Padres' new downtown ballpark, but that idea was rejected by Major League Baseball. Petco later purchased the naming rights for $60 million.

"All of these things help us diversify," Tucker said. "The casino is part of what we are, but we also have to do more for the economic security of future generations."

He said the tribe has no interest in trying to house a casino or other gaming operation at the hotel, but that a museum will be incorporated into the lobby of the hotel to celebrate the history of the Sycuan tribe.

The downtown hotel has a colorful history. The son of famous Civil War general and President Ulysses S. Grant acquired the Horton House in 1895, razing it 10 years later. Financial setbacks delayed the hotel's opening until fall 1910.

Through the years, the hotel played host to presidents such as Warren G. Harding and John F. Kennedy and assorted VIPs, such as columnist Walter Winchell and actor Clark Gable.

In 1948, a group of NAACP activists descended upon the hotel and demanded an end to segregation, and in 1969, a group of eight women protested the Grant Grill restaurant's men-only policy.

American Properties Management Corp. of San Diego will manage hotel operations, Sycuan said. The company manages 36 other hotels with more than 9,000 rooms.

The U.S. Grant's fortunes have been up and down through the years. In the 1970s, the hotel fell into disrepair and seemed destined to be demolished.

Developer Christopher Sickels invested nearly $90 million to restore the hotel's luster in the mid-1980s. But the debt burden of Sickels' renovation proved too much. He lost control of the hotel to his investors, and it was sold to a Japanese company in 1989.

Robert Rauch, director of San Diego State University's Center for Hospitality & Tourism Research, said the hotel is in need of refurbishment.

"Hotels get tired and the U.S. Grant has been tired for a long time, more than 10 years," Rauch said. "It's got the bones of a good hotel, but it needs the look of a good hotel. It's going to take a lot to accomplish that."

Tucker said Sycuan is committed to that. He said the renovation should be completed within a year and the tribe hopes the hotel will be flagged as part of the Starwood Luxury Hotel Collection. Starwood, which operates the Sheraton, Westin and W hotel chains, would draw from an extensive base of upscale customers that would help the U.S. Grant increase room rates.

"If you look at this deal based on past performance, Sycuan paid a lot for the hotel," said Jerry Morrison, a hotel analyst with Morrison & Co. in La Jolla. "But if you look at it as a member of the Starwood Collection and what the hotel can be, it could be a very good deal. We don't really have any kind of small, luxury hotel like this is envisioned."

Morrison said he believes Sycuan needs to upgrade the 33,000 square feet of meeting space at the hotel. The meeting space has low ceilings, creating a claustrophobic effect on large groups and is undesirable for group meetings, he said. That improvement could be accomplished by reviving a previous plan to build a 17-story tower above the parking garage on the north side of the property.

Tucker said that Sycuan has no immediate plans to construct the tower.

"We might in a couple of years, but we want to get this hotel working smoothly before we do anything like that," he said.

Some experts still see the hotel's Third Avenue and Broadway location as a stumbling block.

"The location is a second-tier location compared to those hotels that are on the waterfront," Rauch said. "If you look at the hotels on the Broadway corridor, all of them are struggling when you compare them to the waterfront hotels or Gaslamp hotels within walking distance of the Convention Center."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Staff writer Roger M. Showley contributed to this report.
Michael Kinsman: (619) 293-1370; michael.kinsman@uniontrib.com


 

   

[JMM]

Wow, great story, but Wyndham made out like a bandit! I'd love to have that kind of profit margin on real estate after 2 1/2 years!  

[Rondo_GE]

Heh, I'll say but that's the story on real estate in CA.  My condo increased in value $100,000 in  little over 2 years,  which is almost the exact same percentage increase...56.8 to 55.1 % in roughly the same period of time.  Looks like the Indians are just getting market rate.

Real estate inflation in CA is really a separate issue.  I personally think it is the work of having too low an interest rate for much too long a period of time and a bit of corruption at the local state and municipal level.  Bad policy by the Federal Reserve...you can only go to the well so much then you need to refill it.    But it seems that they have lowered interest rates for far too long and it's made the real estate market go into hyper inflation mode.      

To make matter worse the local governments have almost tripled fees on new construction (no doubt to bring in revenue and hide the increase behind the inflated pace of the resell market).

Just my little theory anyway.    

[JMM]

Man, you guys real estate market in Cali is another world! I'm happy for y'all but I now know why people move here to austin in droves, besides the jobs, people can afford to live here! Hehehehehehehe...    

[Stormbringer]

Pssst! I just happen to be selling cheap lots on another planet. Oddly, the prices are not astronomical just yet...

[lloyd007]

You think California's bad, try New Jersey! Ever since the midtown express was put in thus giving my hometown a mainline into NYC (whereas before you had to get off a Penn's Station Newark and take that slow as molasses smelly PATH train....) The property values have gone up by OVER 100% and in some town by more than 200%. my parents paid about 50k for our house when they bought it in 1975, it was near the train tracks so technically it was much more undesireable than houses next door and such. As of the last assesment our house is worth about 450k and noone care about the stupid train.
Good for someone selling, but the property taxes are murderous and many fixed income people are being driven out.   Low income is just as bad because of stupid state supreme court regs which bascially has developers building anywhere and calling their houses 'low income' and selling them for just below market  

Heck at the rate we're going northern NJ is just gonna be one big subdivision and such in 20 years. A huge open tract of land is up for grabs the next town over. The next town over is full of pricks too they want to build over a swampy area prime recharge area for the aquifer. They almost lost a well last year during the drought!

Now that I've got that rant over I must say good for that tribe! I hope the hotel makes lotsa dough  

[Falaris]

Bought my old apartment for 560K, sold it for 1.3 million... (NOK) - almost a 250% increase in 5 years. Property is good investments, almost invariably.

However, market rate is high for a property that is struggling, and a lot depends on what happened while Wyndham(?) were the owners... the amount of debt, and there undoubtedly is a significant amount, on the property should be directly calculated into that, as well as the amount of renovation.

So we really don't have enough info to say if it was a good buy or not.

What we can say is that those indians can't be doing that badly if they can afford to invest 45 million.

(But then, gambling tends to be profitable.. .uh, casinos I mean.)
   

[JMM]

God, I feel poverish compared to some of you guys... Stoops his head low and says "be careful with your newfound wealth."  

[Falaris]

Note that (NOK) thing... divide by ten and you have dollars. It's not THAT much. And it's not profits; not as long as you buy a new apartment in roughly the same or slightly higher standard than the one you sold.

(And few trade down...)  

[Rondo_GE]

 

Quote:
 Pssst! I just happen to be selling cheap lots on another planet. Oddly, the prices are not astronomical just yet...  

I know a place like that...another planet that is...it's called (K)alifornia!  ..or Planet Hollywood or somethin....

There are still places to buy decent houses cheaper but you have to move further and further away...  where I'm at is 45 miles from my job.  Next stop...Temecula...75 miles from work.

Getting back to what some other have said, 100K sounds likea good deal but it is not.  It's all relative.  My house )condo) has gone up but so has everything else.  A house that used to be 230K is now close to 400K.    My 100K in equity will still only bring that down to 300K and reduce my stabndard of living .  So my "next house" strategy is really an exit strategy...take the money and run.  Not good if you want to keep people living here.  

Those inflation numbers our government keeps putting out...there is something wrong with them.  Something is very wrong.  If such basic things as fuel/energy and housing have inflated so rapidly that people are having a hard time coping with them then whatever voodoo they use to attain those numbers most no longer be relevant.  Sooner or later general incomes must rise to meet these realities and IF those inflation numbers still don't go up then I'm convinced they are BOGUS.

Anyway we should start by finding a fresh set of eyes and get rid of Alan Greenspan.

[JMM]

LMAO @ Rondo's post. I think they are getting numbers from the wealthy, because I can sure tell you the cost of living has SKYROCKETED since I got out of the military in 95, not even a decade yet and I feel the burden...  

[Rondo_GE]

I wonder what President Grant would have thought of all this?lol

I sort of think this is cool and refreshing news and should gladden anyone's day; here's a group of people we no longer have to think of as victim's anymore...of course that might come as a disappointment to some.

The Sycuan tribe is one of the most aggressive tribes.  They have already begun their expansion into the economy in various ways.  

Hey this is a 4 star hotel.  There's a Breuger's bagel shop on the floor level that I stop in occasionally on my way to work.  I'll provide the link but this is one of those "online newspaper" things and these articles have a tendency to disappear or get locked up.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20031204-9999_1b4grant.html


 


 
SYCUAN STEPS UP FOR STORIED HOTEL

By Michael Kinsman
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

December 4, 2003

NELVIN CEPEDA / Union-Tribune
The storied U.S. Grant Hotel has been purchased for $45 million by the Sycuan Band of Kumeyaay Indians, which hopes the downtown hotel will help diversify the tribe's economic base.
 
The storied U.S. Grant Hotel has been purchased for $45 million by the Sycuan Band of Kumeyaay Indians, which hopes the downtown hotel will help diversify the tribe's economic base.

The transaction was completed at midnight Tuesday, with Sycuan taking over yesterday morning from Wyndham International, a Dallas company that paid $29 million for the property 2½ years ago.

"We are tremendously proud to be able to purchase the U.S. Grant, which has a historical role in San Diego," Sycuan tribal chairman Daniel Tucker said. "We see this as another step in our diversification."

The tribe has a special reverence for the hotel's namesake, Ulysses S. Grant, who as U.S. president signed an executive order in 1875 setting aside lands in San Diego County exclusively for the Kumeyaay, including the Sycuan reservation in East County.

"We feel the hotel is a part of history, and we are part of that history, too," Tucker said.

The 170-member tribe also said it would spend an additional $10 million to renovate the 93-year-old hotel.

The stately hotel, directly across Broadway from Horton Plaza, has 284 rooms and a five-story parking garage.

The hotel has struggled for more than two decades with a succession of owners and operators trying to restore it to profitability. The hotel's occupancy rate is believed to be low for the downtown area.

Sycuan has been a leader among California Indian tribes in aggressively expanding business operations beyond its 900-acre reservation southeast of El Cajon, where it operates a successful gambling business.

In 2000, it purchased Singing Hills Country Club and a 104-room hotel three miles from the reservation. Last August, it proposed a $25 million hotel, restaurant and market near the National City waterfront. Last month the tribe launched a mutual fund to invest in stocks of large and medium-sized American companies.

The tribe had tried to acquire the naming rights to the Padres' new downtown ballpark, but that idea was rejected by Major League Baseball. Petco later purchased the naming rights for $60 million.

"All of these things help us diversify," Tucker said. "The casino is part of what we are, but we also have to do more for the economic security of future generations."

He said the tribe has no interest in trying to house a casino or other gaming operation at the hotel, but that a museum will be incorporated into the lobby of the hotel to celebrate the history of the Sycuan tribe.

The downtown hotel has a colorful history. The son of famous Civil War general and President Ulysses S. Grant acquired the Horton House in 1895, razing it 10 years later. Financial setbacks delayed the hotel's opening until fall 1910.

Through the years, the hotel played host to presidents such as Warren G. Harding and John F. Kennedy and assorted VIPs, such as columnist Walter Winchell and actor Clark Gable.

In 1948, a group of NAACP activists descended upon the hotel and demanded an end to segregation, and in 1969, a group of eight women protested the Grant Grill restaurant's men-only policy.

American Properties Management Corp. of San Diego will manage hotel operations, Sycuan said. The company manages 36 other hotels with more than 9,000 rooms.

The U.S. Grant's fortunes have been up and down through the years. In the 1970s, the hotel fell into disrepair and seemed destined to be demolished.

Developer Christopher Sickels invested nearly $90 million to restore the hotel's luster in the mid-1980s. But the debt burden of Sickels' renovation proved too much. He lost control of the hotel to his investors, and it was sold to a Japanese company in 1989.

Robert Rauch, director of San Diego State University's Center for Hospitality & Tourism Research, said the hotel is in need of refurbishment.

"Hotels get tired and the U.S. Grant has been tired for a long time, more than 10 years," Rauch said. "It's got the bones of a good hotel, but it needs the look of a good hotel. It's going to take a lot to accomplish that."

Tucker said Sycuan is committed to that. He said the renovation should be completed within a year and the tribe hopes the hotel will be flagged as part of the Starwood Luxury Hotel Collection. Starwood, which operates the Sheraton, Westin and W hotel chains, would draw from an extensive base of upscale customers that would help the U.S. Grant increase room rates.

"If you look at this deal based on past performance, Sycuan paid a lot for the hotel," said Jerry Morrison, a hotel analyst with Morrison & Co. in La Jolla. "But if you look at it as a member of the Starwood Collection and what the hotel can be, it could be a very good deal. We don't really have any kind of small, luxury hotel like this is envisioned."

Morrison said he believes Sycuan needs to upgrade the 33,000 square feet of meeting space at the hotel. The meeting space has low ceilings, creating a claustrophobic effect on large groups and is undesirable for group meetings, he said. That improvement could be accomplished by reviving a previous plan to build a 17-story tower above the parking garage on the north side of the property.

Tucker said that Sycuan has no immediate plans to construct the tower.

"We might in a couple of years, but we want to get this hotel working smoothly before we do anything like that," he said.

Some experts still see the hotel's Third Avenue and Broadway location as a stumbling block.

"The location is a second-tier location compared to those hotels that are on the waterfront," Rauch said. "If you look at the hotels on the Broadway corridor, all of them are struggling when you compare them to the waterfront hotels or Gaslamp hotels within walking distance of the Convention Center."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Staff writer Roger M. Showley contributed to this report.
Michael Kinsman: (619) 293-1370; michael.kinsman@uniontrib.com


 

   

[JMM]

Wow, great story, but Wyndham made out like a bandit! I'd love to have that kind of profit margin on real estate after 2 1/2 years!  

[Rondo_GE]

Heh, I'll say but that's the story on real estate in CA.  My condo increased in value $100,000 in  little over 2 years,  which is almost the exact same percentage increase...56.8 to 55.1 % in roughly the same period of time.  Looks like the Indians are just getting market rate.

Real estate inflation in CA is really a separate issue.  I personally think it is the work of having too low an interest rate for much too long a period of time and a bit of corruption at the local state and municipal level.  Bad policy by the Federal Reserve...you can only go to the well so much then you need to refill it.    But it seems that they have lowered interest rates for far too long and it's made the real estate market go into hyper inflation mode.      

To make matter worse the local governments have almost tripled fees on new construction (no doubt to bring in revenue and hide the increase behind the inflated pace of the resell market).

Just my little theory anyway.    

[JMM]

Man, you guys real estate market in Cali is another world! I'm happy for y'all but I now know why people move here to austin in droves, besides the jobs, people can afford to live here! Hehehehehehehe...    

[Stormbringer]

Pssst! I just happen to be selling cheap lots on another planet. Oddly, the prices are not astronomical just yet...

[lloyd007]

You think California's bad, try New Jersey! Ever since the midtown express was put in thus giving my hometown a mainline into NYC (whereas before you had to get off a Penn's Station Newark and take that slow as molasses smelly PATH train....) The property values have gone up by OVER 100% and in some town by more than 200%. my parents paid about 50k for our house when they bought it in 1975, it was near the train tracks so technically it was much more undesireable than houses next door and such. As of the last assesment our house is worth about 450k and noone care about the stupid train.
Good for someone selling, but the property taxes are murderous and many fixed income people are being driven out.   Low income is just as bad because of stupid state supreme court regs which bascially has developers building anywhere and calling their houses 'low income' and selling them for just below market  

Heck at the rate we're going northern NJ is just gonna be one big subdivision and such in 20 years. A huge open tract of land is up for grabs the next town over. The next town over is full of pricks too they want to build over a swampy area prime recharge area for the aquifer. They almost lost a well last year during the drought!

Now that I've got that rant over I must say good for that tribe! I hope the hotel makes lotsa dough  

[Falaris]

Bought my old apartment for 560K, sold it for 1.3 million... (NOK) - almost a 250% increase in 5 years. Property is good investments, almost invariably.

However, market rate is high for a property that is struggling, and a lot depends on what happened while Wyndham(?) were the owners... the amount of debt, and there undoubtedly is a significant amount, on the property should be directly calculated into that, as well as the amount of renovation.

So we really don't have enough info to say if it was a good buy or not.

What we can say is that those indians can't be doing that badly if they can afford to invest 45 million.

(But then, gambling tends to be profitable.. .uh, casinos I mean.)
   

[JMM]

God, I feel poverish compared to some of you guys... Stoops his head low and says "be careful with your newfound wealth."  

[Falaris]

Note that (NOK) thing... divide by ten and you have dollars. It's not THAT much. And it's not profits; not as long as you buy a new apartment in roughly the same or slightly higher standard than the one you sold.

(And few trade down...)