It’s a West Hollywood hat trick for LaSalle Hotel Properties.
The Bethesda, Md.-based real estate investment trust has signed an agreement to purchase the Le Parc Suite Hotel for $47 million, including assumption of a nearly $16 million loan. The Le Parc will be the third West Hollywood property LaSalle has acquired, following its purchases of the Le Montrose Suite Hotel and the Grafton on Sunset.
Hans Weger, LaSalle’s chief financial officer, said the company might not be done shopping in the city. “We like the West Hollywood market. We feel that it is very strong,” he said.
The purchase, expected to be completed within a month, will give La Salle control of some of the smallest full-service hotels of the 12 total in West Hollywood. Respectively, the Le Parc, Le Montrose and Grafton have 154, 132 and 112 rooms. The former two are all-suite hotels.
Encino-based Outrigger Lodging Services manages all three hotels. Until the purchase is finished, Outrigger will retain ownership of the Le Parc, which recently completed a renovation of its rooms and restaurant, Knoll at Le Parc.
Weger said Outrigger’s experience in the market is one of the reasons that LaSalle plans to retain Outrigger as the hotel’s manager after the purchase is completed. “It is easier to understand what is going on in terms of pricing and the different meetings.”
LaSalle’s West Hollywood hotels are its only properties in the L.A. area, but it owns three hotels in San Diego. Including Le Parc, the company’s portfolio consists of 27 properties with over 8,300 rooms in 11 states and the District of Columbia.
LaSalle is publicly traded on the Nasdaq.
Jean Deals
One of out two isn’t bad for Huntington Beach-based Jeantex Group Inc.
The denim goods and accessories specialist targeted L.A.-based high-end clothier Yves Castaldi Corp. and L.A.-based private-label manufacturer Sanatex Inc. for acquisition. But Jeantex is only moving forward with the Yves Castaldi deal.
“We determined that operating Sanatex under the Jeantex Group was not the best platform to expand our business,” chairman Henry Fahman said in a statement.
Jeantex will get a 51 percent stake in Yves Castaldi for 10 million shares of Jeantex restricted common stock and $650,000 in cash. The deal is based on the expectation that Yves, which markets under the Just Yves, I Generation and Instinct Yves brands, will make at least a $2.5 million profit on $10 million in sales in the next year.
Under the nullified agreement to purchase Sanatex, Jeantex would have gained a 51 percent stake in the company by acquiring all of the issued and outstanding stock of Sanatex in exchange for newly issued shares of Class A common stock of Jeantex. Jeantex had estimated that Sanatex’s revenues would amount to $35 million, with projected profits of $3.5 million for 2006.
Jeantex, which recently went public and is traded on the OTC Bulletin Board, is still interested in buying other companies. “Jeantex remains committed to its growth strategy and will continue to seek new opportunities that create value for our shareholders,” said Fahman.
Rooms Available
After a $12 million makeover, the Holiday Inn Brentwood/Bel Air is set to officially become the swanky Hotel Angeleno next month.
San Francisco-based Joie de Vivre Hospitality, the largest boutique hotel operator in Northern California, will manage the property and hopes to take on others in the L.A. area. Sherman Oaks-based real estate firm GH Capital LLC owns the property.
The hotel’s 209 rooms have been renovated and its signature circular exterior has been updated by Jo Fusion Inc. The hotel will also have a new restaurant, called West, featuring a panoramic view from the penthouse.
Teenage Blues
It Jeans Inc. is going for a younger crowd.
The Los Angeles-based jeans manufacturer has introduced a new brand called Ilin for the junior market. The brand is aimed at teenagers, a slightly younger demographic than those who typically snatch up the company’s namesake brand It Jeans.
Ilin was recently rolled out at Nordstrom Inc. stores, where It Jeans Chief Executive Kimmy Song said they are performing well. “Just looking at the junior brands as a whole, we wanted to offer something different,” she said.
Ilin pants cost $39 to $42 each, a little less than the $68 to $88 price tag for It Jean’s core brand. In the junior market, they compete with pants made by jeans makers l.e.i., owned by Bristol, Penn.-based Jones Apparel Group Inc., and Rancho Dominguez-based Paris Blues Inc.
Track Back
Los Alamitos Race Course is moving on plans to join the big leagues of horse racing.
The track is planning an expansion to hold thoroughbred horse racing by 2009. Los Alamitos, now home to quarter horses,a compact, muscular breed,could see a slew of changes.
Among them: a remodeling with 2,500 new grandstand seats, a track expansion and some 700 new barns to house 1,000 thoroughbred horses.
Los Alamitos owner Edward Allred and Mike Pegram, a thoroughbred owner and racer, would fund the proposed expansion, which could cost $50 million to $60 million, Allred said.
The track has to clear a number of hurdles.
The expansion hinges on the closing of thoroughbred track Hollywood Park in Inglewood. Then Los Alamitos would need approvals from the city and neighboring Cypress.
Support from thoroughbred owners and others also is needed, said Allred, a doctor who also owns Long Beach-based gynecological practice Family Planning Associates Medical Group Inc.
“We’ll spend a couple million dollars to get ready,” he said. “We’ll eat that if we have to.”
Hollywood Park’s closure is likely but not a given. Louisville, Ky.-based Churchill Downs Inc., operator of the Kentucky Derby, sold Hollywood Park in July. Buyer Bay Meadows Land Co., owned by San Mateo-based Stockbridge Real Estate Fund LP, made a three-year pledge to keep racing at the track.
*Staff reporter Rachel Brown can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 224, or by e-mail at
[email protected]
. Orange County Business Journal staff reporter Jennifer Bellantonio contributed to this column.
