Blackstone's Hotel del Coronado to Get $160M Restoration

Blackstone Real Estate has announced a $160 million restoration and revitalization of San Diego’s historic Hotel del Coronado.

Blackstone said the renovation, which is scheduled to be completed in 2025, is the final phase of the firm’s $550 million development plan for the 134-year-old resort, which sits on the southern end of San Diego’s Coronado peninsula.

“Since our more than $550 million investment plan began in 2018, we have worked diligently to preserve The Del as a National Historic Landmark while cementing the property’s status as an iconic and timeless destination for generations to come,” Rob Harper, head of real estate asset management Americas at Blackstone, said in a statement.

The restoration aims to preserve the look and feel of the original beachfront Victorian-style building that opened in 1888. The main building is known as The Victorian.

Led by Wimberly Interiors in partnership with WATG’s California architecture studio, the renovation will ensure that the public areas of Hotel del Coronado remain truly Victorian with original finishes remaining intact.

Contemporary design enhancements will be added to bathrooms, furnishing, artwork and state-of-the-art technologies to elevate the level of comfort and luxury, the designers said.

David Marshall of Heritage Architecture & Planning is leading the guestroom redesign of The Victorian.

Blackstone’s development plan for Hotel del Coronado also includes Shore House at The Del, 75 residential-style accommodations on the south end of the resort, which was completed in 2022; a full makeover of Beach Village at the Del, scheduled to be completed by the end of this year; and the Ice House Museum, which showcase’s The Del’s history.

Blackstone acquired the Hotel del Coronado in 2015 as part of a $6 billion purchase of Strategic Hotels and Resorts, with the San Diego landmark then valued at about $600 million. In 2016, Blackstone had a deal to sell the entire Strategic portfolio to Anbang Insurance Group, but the deal was blocked by U.S. regulators.

In May, Blackstone refinanced the Hotel del Coronado with a $950 million commercial mortgage-backed security provided by Barclays. The floating-rate, interest-only loan is about 60% loan-to-value, setting the value of the 757-key hotel at about $1.6 billion, according to a report from Trepp.

The new finance package replaced $508 million in senior mortgage debt and $204 million held across three mezzanine loans, all of which originated in 2017.