The sale is the latest in a long list of San Francisco hotel sales in the past year and several others are on the works. In June 2006, the Chicago based REIT Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc. acquired the 1,195-room Westin St. Francis hotel on Union Square for $440 million or $368,000 per key. The hotel features 45 luxury suites, 50,000 sf of meeting space, 39,000 sf of retail space, a 4,600-sf health club and spa and four food and beverage outlets.

In May, the 360-room Park Hyatt in the Financial District sold in early May for about $135 million, or $375,000 per key, and was re-branded a Le Merdien. In April, Ashford Hospitality Trust of Dallas acquired the 338-room Pan Pacific San Francisco Hotel for $95 million, or $281,065 per key, and re-branded the property a JW Marriott hotel. In March, the 690-room Argent hotel on Third Street between Market and Mission was sold for $178 million, or $258,000 per key.

Atlas Hospitality Group is still compiling a year-end report on the hospitality market, but president Alan Reay tells GlobeSt.com that that 2006 will go down as the biggest year the California hospitality market has experienced since his firm began tracking the state 15 years ago. The rough totals are 380 transactions with a combined value well in excess of $3 billion, he says.

While value and number of hotel sales both are expected to slow in 2007, in large part because the biggest and best hotels changed hands in 2006, the Hyatt Regency sale gets the year off to a big start and others are in the works. The 1,009-room Renaissance Parc 55 is expected to change hands in the very near future and Crowne Plaza and Palomar hotels recently went on the market, according to local brokers.