By Tiffany
Kjos
Inside Tucson
Business
Westward Look
Resort is one of four properties Strategic Hotel Capital is offering for
sale, in what its CEO calls “the normal course of business.”
The move is
not a reflection on the property, according to SHC spokesman Gregg Laskoski,
but part of the company’s plan to invest in higher-end hotels in metropolitan
areas.
Along with
the Westward Look, SHC is selling the Sheraton Westport Inn and Sheraton
Westport Plaza in St. Louis and the Embassy Suites in Philadelphia.
“While each
of these properties are currently in line with our expectations, the decision
to divest is based on our previously stated objectives of focusing on more
upscale properties in major metropolitan and resort markets and throughout
the world,” CEO Laurence Geller said in a press release.
SHC is a privately
held firm that owns approximately 30 luxury hotels worldwide. Its holdings
include the RitzCarlton Laguna Niguel in Dana Point, Calif., and the Paris
Marriott Champs Elysees.
“Hotels
are bought and sold all the time as investments. Westward Look has been
sold three times since 1997, but the management team stayed in place,”
said Georgia Lacy of Geo and Associates, Westward Look’s public relations
firm.
The resort,
which SHC purchased in November 1997, is managed by Coastal Hotel Group.
The management could change under new ownership, but Westward Look General
Manager Jayne Decker said that is unlikely.
“There’s always
a remote chance of that but the management has been in place since 1995,”
Decker said. “We don’t expect that part to change but that’s not a 100
percent guarantee.”
The management
company is directly involved with the owners in the sale process, she said.
Westward Look
has received AAA!s Four-Diamond rating for 17 consecutive years. It is
located on 75 acres in the Catalina foothills.
“Westward Look
has definitely got its niche in this market, and has since 1912,” Lacy
said.