Hotel Portfolio in Wine Country Comes on Market

Stratus Development Partners’ David Wood with Cambria Hotel Sonoma and Napa (Jamboree Housing Corporation, Avison Young, Getty)

Irvine-based Stratus Development Partners has listed two hotels in Napa and Sonoma a few years after they were built. The price for the portfolio is not publicly disclosed.

The 135-key Cambria Hotel Sonoma Wine Country opened in August 2020, while the 90-key Cambria Hotel Napa opened one year later in August 2021. The portfolio is expected to generate $14.5 million in total revenue by the end of 2023, with Cambria Napa generating $7.8 million and Sonoma generating $6.7 million

The entitlement process took a decade for Stratus to complete, and new hotels in wine country are hard to find.

“As of right now, development for new hotel construction in Napa and Sonoma is rare, and securing local and state approval is a lengthy and tumultuous process, deterring new supply in the immediate future,” brokerage Avision Young, who is representing Stratus, said.

The Cambria Napa Valley features a “Modern-agrarian” design and has a two-story lobby. Amenities include an outdoor heated whirlpool, a shop for snacks and essentials, a restaurant and a bar that features local wine and craft beers.

Cambria Sonoma has a “Northern California-inspired décor” with layout that emphasizes the scenic views of local vineyards. Amenities at Sonoma also feature a restaurant and bar, an outdoor heated pool and a meeting room/event space.

Stratus is putting the portfolio on the market at a time when the Bay Area hospitality market has taken a dip. Hotel sales in the region dropped dramatically in the first half of the year, according to a report by consulting firm Atlas Hospitality Group, which attributed the decline to the lingering effects of the pandemic.

The total dollar volume for hotels bought in the nine-county Bay Area was nearly $661 million. That was down 66.8 percent from the $1.99 billion in hotel purchases during the first six months of 2021.

The Bay Area fared worse than the statewide hospitality sector. During the first six months of 2022, California hotel purchases generated $3.45 billion in transactions, which was down 33.6 percent from the record $5.19 billion in hotel deals in the first half of 2021, Atlas reported.

“We have seen a slowdown in markets like San Francisco and San Jose due to the fact that business travel and convention/meeting business is still way down,” Alan Reay from Atlas said.

The average price for hotel purchases in the Bay Area during the first half of 2022 was $16.9 million, which was down 39.6 percent compared with the first six months of 2021, when the average hotel purchase price was $28 million.