St. Regis Monarch Beach Headed For Foreclosure Auction

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jun 11th 2009 at 1:15AM

Another luxury hotel is in financial trouble and facing foreclosure. The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the owners of the St. Regis Monarch Beach in Dana Point, California have defaulted on a $70-million loan. The Orange County resort became infamous last year for being the site of the $443,000 AIG retreat after the federal bailout.

The companies that own the resort are in default and the hotel has been scheduled for a foreclosure auction. Ongoing negotiations may prevent the auction but unless a deal is worked out the auction will take place on July 7. The St. Regis has a 400-room hotel, a golf course, a private beach club and several restaurants including Michael Mina's Stonehill Tavern. The property is current on two other mortgages totaling $230 million. The property was refinanced in 2007 amassing $300 million in debt. The five-star hotel is located near Laguna Beach, California which is also home to Ritz-Carlton and Montage luxury resorts.

The hotel is part of the Starwood Group, a company which has seen several of its W Hotels also flirt with foreclosure. Like those hotels, the St. Regis Monarch Beach remains open. It has a Father's Day brunch planned as well as barbecue events for the Fourth of July and packages to coordinate with Laguna Beach's popular Pageant of the Masters which runs from July 8 to August 31. The art event showcases "living pictures" - re-creations of classical and contemporary works of art with real people posing to look exactly like their counterparts in the original pieces. That show and several other art festivals, brings tourists to the beach town all summer long and usually keep local resorts full of guests.

Gallery: Hotels In Transition

Tags: foreclosure, hotel, monarch beach, MonarchBeach, st regis, st regis monarch beach, StRegis, StRegisMonarchBeach

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

Source

Subscribe to these comments

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Brian Jun 11th 2009 8:29PM

Our present communist government should buy it with their monopoly money and put low income comrades in it at taxpayers expense.

Donovan Jun 11th 2009 8:41PM

Turn it into a combination, time share/Hotel/Resort.

pb Jun 12th 2009 12:27PM

very sad....beautiful property....great service and fabulous spa....a little over priced....yes....creativity is a necessity at this point.

Diane Jun 12th 2009 1:25AM

I think that it is a beautiful place but why can't you pull the prices down so the common people can sta ther and even play glof at a lower price and I would think that people would flog to it.....wy not try 85, a night and 40 to play golf and you just might bring it out of the red into the Green..It would take a lot of work and the bosses would have to take a salary cout and minght even have to work themselves...Son't laugh....but it could work......

rebajane26 Jun 12th 2009 3:14AM

I work at a 200+ room, 4 Diamond Luxury hotel. The minimum dollar amount needed to cover the cost of a small occupied room is $75. That covers the labor (front desk, housekeeping, F&B), the cleaning supplies, the laundry service, etc. And that is only for a small standard size room. To think that a hotel of that calibur could get by offering $85 rates is incredibly naive. Please stick to what you know.

notlaura Jun 12th 2009 3:15AM

the gov will probably bail this hotel out ... giving them millions ... while there are regular ol' people losing their homes .. not enough to eat ... cant afford to buy their kids clothes ... but hey .. then the rich wont have anywhere to go right? .. oh wait .. theyre not going there anyways! eekk!! =)

cjosc99 Jul 7th 2009 8:30PM

And what about all the hundreds of employees affected by bad publicity? The LA Times may make a few dollars but what about all the hundreds of associates affected by unscrupulous journalists who just want a few minutes of fame?