Chinese Firm Buys Los Angeles Airport Marriott For $160 million

LATimes ^ | December 18, 2014 | ROGER VINCENT

[Steelfish]

Chinese Firm Buys Los Angeles Airport Marriott For $160 million

The Los Angeles Airport Marriott, which sold for $160 million, has 1,004 rooms in 18 stories. The buyer is expected to make about $35 million worth of improvements. (Asia Pacific Capital Co.) By ROGER VINCENT

The Airport Marriott is one of the largest hotels in Los Angeles County XLD Group also bought the 487-room Torrance Marriott South Bay hotel from DiamondRock late last year

A Chinese real estate developer has purchased the vast Los Angeles Airport Marriott for $160 million and vowed to make substantial improvements.

It was the largest hotel sale of the year in Los Angeles County, brokers said, and a sign that the appetite for Southern California properties remains strong among Chinese investors.

Sichuan Xinglida Group Enterprises Co., which has built numerous mixed-use projects in mainland China, bought the hotel through its U.S. subsidiary, XLD Group. The seller was DiamondRock Hospitality Co., a Maryland real estate investment trust that owned it for about a decade, according to Karin Chao of Asia Pacific Capital Co., an adviser to the buyer.

The Airport Marriott is one of the largest hotels in Los Angeles County, with 1,004 rooms in 18 stories. It was completed in 1972 at 5855 W. Century Blvd.

About $35-million worth of improvements are coming to the hotel, said Eddy Chao of Asia Pacific. Meeting rooms on the top floor will be eliminated to create a new "executive floor," where guests in Marriott's rewards program can lounge and eat breakfast.

[GWB00]

When I was a kid in High School (30 yeas ago), my friend’s mom took us there to have Mexican food before dropping off my buddy’s stepdad at the airport. (I later learned he was “commuting” to Nicaragua to patch up Contras). She claimed this Marriott had the best Mexican food in Los Angeles.

[sergeantdave]

“Now how long until all these Chinese buildings end up back in a US/Western company’s hands, much like the Japanese acquisitions did?”

Good question. The US realty market had predicted this movement of ChiComm money into the US realty market since 2013. The realtors said that the ChiComm buys would center around the big west coast cities and NYC. So far, that’s proving to be the case.

To me, these buys say a lot about the state of the ChiComm economy. The ChiComm oligarchs have no faith whatsoever in the stability of the ChiComm economy. Private equity has been leaving China for a few years now and moving to the BRIC nations. This movement of money out of China, IMO, is a significant sign of serious financial trouble, despite all the cheering about the China “superman” from our commie financial press.

Time will tell.

[Mr. Jeeves]

In China, business IS the government. There is no real difference.

Actually, it's just like the USA, now. Big business is the government - small business is stepped on or ignored...until tax time.

One critical difference - the Chinese government takes no interest in micromanaging small business over things like ADA or OSHA or diversity compliance or a million conflicting city and state zoning/signage/lighting/operations laws, so despite the lack of real investment opportunities Chinese entrepreneurs arguably have it easier than their American counterparts.

[Cry if I Wanna]

I’m old enough to remember when the Japanese bought everything, including Rockefeller Center!