EOS Investors ID’d as Buyer of Hotel Zoe Fisherman’s Wharf

EOS Investors was identified as the mystery buyer that paid $68.5 million for Hotel Zoe Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.

The private New York-based hospitality investor last month bought the 221-room hotel at 425 North Point Street, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The seller was Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, based in Maryland.

EOS got a discount at a price that comes out to $310,000 per room.

Pebblebrook bought the now 33-year-old Hotel Zoe in 2015 for $122 million, or $552,000 per room, then spent $14 million on renovations. The sale is expected to close by year’s end.

Last spring, the Bethesda-based REIT indicated it was also poised to sell the 196-room Hotel Zeppelin San Francisco at 545 Post Street. It may have scotched those plans after opening the PLS on Post anchor restaurant last month, according to the Business Times.

It purchased the 110-year-old Hotel Zeppelin in 2014 for $49 million, or $306,000 per room.

The sale of the Hotel Zoe marked the fifth hotel Pebblebrook has sold in the city since 2021.

The hospitality firm began 2020 with 12 hotel properties in San Francisco, its largest hotel market. As the pandemic ramped up, it sold four of its hotels across the city.

The sales included the Sir Francis Drake in early 2021 to Northview Hotel Group and Angelo Gordon; the Villa Florence later that year to AWH Partners and The Roxborough Group; The Marker last July to an affiliate of Stockdale Capital Partners for $77 million, or $370,000 per room; and Hotel Spero last August to an affiliate of Fairwood Capital for $71 million, or $380,000 per room.

Pebblebrook still maintains a presence on Fisherman’s Wharf, with its 361-room Hotel Zephyr Fisherman’s Wharf at 250 Beach Street. The company has expressed confidence throughout the pandemic in the city’s economic turnaround. In 2021, it sank $25 million into renovating the Hotel Vitale, now the 1 Hotel San Francisco at 8 Mission Street.

For EOS, Hotel Zoe is its first buy in San Francisco. The property is poised to keep the Hotel Zoe name, analysts say.

Simon Mais, named last summer as CEO of the firm’s hospitality unit, has leadership experience in San Francisco and familiarity with Pebblebrook. He served as general manager of the Le Méridien San Francisco in the Financial District at the century-old Clift, now the Clift Royal Sonesta.

EOS owns the Big Sur Campground & Cabins site south of Monterey. It also has resort properties in New England and South Carolina’s Myrtle Beach, where last year EOS bought majority stakes in hotels from Brittain Resorts & Hotels.

— Dana Bartholomew