AUSTIN – (Realty News Report) – Interfin Companies, a Houston firm led by developer Giorgio Borlenghi, has sold the Hotel Granduca Austin, a 194-room upscale hotel in the suburban hills of Austin.
The Austin hotel opened in 2015, as the sister property of Interfin’s Hotel Granduca in the Uptown Houston area, near the Galleria.
The Hotel Granduca Austin was acquired by Irvine,Calif.-based Pacific Hospitality Group, which owns several upscale hotels in the Napa Valley of California and Hawaii operating under its Meritage Collection brand, in addition to other business class hotels in Southern California and two Marriott branded properties in the Dallas area.
The Hotel Granduca Austin will be rebranded as part of the Meritage Collection in 2021.
In one respect, Pacific Hospitality Group’s acquisition of the Austin hotel reflects a noteworthy 2020 trend – California companies are moving into Texas.
The 9-story,190,000-SF Hotel Granduca Austin is located in the Westlake area at 320 South Capital of Texas Highway, near the northwest corner of Bee Caves Road and Loop 360.
In 2014, when work began on Granduca in Austin, Interfin was considering expanding the Granduca brand to other cities. At that time, the Granduca in Houston was earning rates of $340 a night – one of the top four hotels in Texas.
“We believe in Texas – and outside of Texas – there are quite a number of cities that would be perfect locations for something like this,” Giorgio Borlenghi told Realty News Report in 2014. “Our hope and our goal is to start expanding in other markets because it’s a great concept and it works.”
Expansion of the Granduca brand appeared to be a plausible plan for significant success. At that time, Austin was the strongest hotel market in the state with exceptionally high occupancy and room rates.
But coronavirus pandemic changed everything. Downtown Austin hoteliers saw RevPAR (revenue per average room) plummet to $3.62 a night in April, down from $260 in April 2019, according to the STR hotel research firm.
Across the nation, the pandemic choked the hotel business and thousands of hotel workers lost their jobs. The hospitality industry should gradually regain its footing as the pandemic recedes.
Borlenghi’s Interfin Cos. has developed a number of Houston projects and office and residential towers in the Galleria area of Houston, including Four Oaks Place and Four Leaf Towers and Uptown Park.
Interfin’s 122-room Hotel Granduca Houston, which opened in 2006, was named to Conde Nast’s Gold List. It was also noted in Conde Nast’s Readers’ Choice “Top 15 Hotels in Texas,” and received Forbes’ Four Star rating.
Dec. 24, 2020 Realty News Report Copyright 2020
File: Interfin Sells Hotel Granduca Austin
File: (2) Interfin. Giorgio Borlenghi. Conde Nast. nterfin Sells Hotel Granduca Austin to Pacific Hospitality Group.