Hotel sales: Hilton Costa Mesa changes hands for $70M

Despite a fourth quarter standstill in tourist-- related industries, hotel sales in Orange County in 2001 kept pace with the previous year, with 28 transactions posted by year's end. Those 28 sales totaled $142.1 million, almost double the $74 million posted from the same number of sales in 2000.

At the top end was the $70 million sale of the 484-room Hilton Costa Mesa. That sale, at $144,628 per room, was part of a four-hotel portfolio deal between Hilton Hotels and Orlando-based CNL Hospitality that gave the majority interest in the hotel to CNL. Hilton Hotels retains a minority interest in the Costa Mesa property.

The Hilton Costa Mesa ranked No. 11 on the most recent Business Journal list of the county's largest hotels and No. 5 on the most recent list of largest meeting facilities. The Hilton has 46,000 square feet of meeting space.

But though the dollar volume of hotel deals in 2001 far exceeded the 2000 performance-- which included few large sales-it still fell short of the $199 million posted in 36 transactions in 1999.