SUNNYVALE — A Southern California group has bought its second Santa Clara County hotel this week at a low price that points to ongoing tough times for the Bay Area hotel market.
The Sonesta ES Suites Sunnyvale, a 138-room hotel, has been bought for $15 million, documents filed on Dec. 18 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office show.
San Diego-based Kalthia Group Hotels acted through an affiliate to buy the all-suites hotel, at 900 Hamlin Ct. in Sunnyvale, according to the county real estate records.
The day before the Sunnyvale transaction, Kalthia Group Hotels bought an all-suites hotel in north San Jose, paying $16 million for a Sonesta ES Suites at 1602 Crane Ct.
Hospitality Properties Trust was the seller in both South Bay hotel transactions.
Both deals were completed at what appears to be an exceedingly low price for a Bay Area hotel.
The Kalthia firm bought the Sunnyvale Sonesta ES Suites hotel at a price that equated to about $108,700 a room. Kalthia Group bought the 114-room Sonesta ES Suites hotel in north San Jose at a per-room price of roughly $140,350.
Kalthia Group Hotels executives have proposed a conversion of the north San Jose property into housing, a preliminary proposal on file with city planners show.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether Kalthia Group has housing conversion plans in mind for the Sunnyvale suites hotel the company has just bought.
Each of the rooms in the all-suites San Jose hotel features a fully equipped kitchen. Some of the suites have two bedrooms.
“This makes sense as a housing conversion,” Alan Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group, said earlier this week in discussing the residential plans for the San Jose hotel.
Similarly, all of the rooms at the Sonesta lodging hub in Sunnyvale are suites and feature full kitchens that include a stovetop and a full-sized refrigerator and freezer.
“Suites already have kitchens, so that makes a conversion easier,” Reay said.