For more than two years, the saga of two large hotels — Parc 55 San Francisco and Hilton San Francisco Union Square — have defined the broader outlook on San Francisco as an investment market.
Two of the largest hotels in the city have languished in limbo after hotel-focused real estate investment trust Park Hotels & Resorts decided it was more financially prudent to hand back the keys for the properties than it was to rework the massive $725 million debt on them.
Recently, the future for the two hotels have come into focus. Courts approved a plan on Sept. 25 for two New York-based groups — Newbond and Conversant — to take ownership.
Here's a look at the yearslong saga of the hotels to get to this point.
May 1964 — The 18-story, 1,200-room San Francisco Hilton opens.
1971 — A second tower standing 46-stories opens at the San Francisco Hilton.
October 1984 — The Ramada Renaissance Hotel opens.
1988 — A three-year, $150 million reworking of the San Francisco Hilton is completed, adding a 26-story third tower and connecting the two existing towers.
1989 — The Ramada Renaissance sells to Oakland-based Park Lane Hotels and rebrands as the Parc Fifty Five Hotel.
April 1998 — The Parc Fifty Five Hotel becomes the Renaissance Parc 55 Hotel under a deal with Marriott International.
December 2006 — Rockpoint Group and Highgate Holdings buy the Renaissance Parc 55 Hotel for $170 million. The hotel is sold in a portfolio of three properties totaling nearly $250 million.
January 2007 - Rockpoint and Highgate end the relationship with Marriott and rename their property the Parc 55 Hotel.
April 2010 — Parc 55 joins Wyndham Hotel Group, then part of Wyndham Worldwide, and becomes Parc 55 Wyndham San Francisco - Union Square.
March 2012 — Blackstone takes 76.1% ownership of Parc 55 for $175 million after reports the previous owners had defaulted on $211 million in debt the month prior.
February 2015 — Hilton purchases a portfolio of three hotels for a total of $1 billion. This deal includes the Parc 55 for $525 million, with Hilton taking over management and branding of the property from Wyndham. The hotel rebrands as Parc 55 San Francisco - A Hilton Hotel. The deal was funded by proceeds from Hilton's $1.95 billion sale of the Waldorf Astoria New York to China's Anbang Insurance Group.
November 2016 — $725 billion CMBS debt is originated for the Parc 55 and Hilton San Francisco Union Square with a maturity date set for November 2023. At the same time, $1.275 million in debt was placed on the Hilton Hawaiian Village with a November 2026 maturity date.
January 2017 — Hilton's owned properties are spun off into an independent real estate investment trust named Park Hotels & Resorts. The company's president, chairman and CEO, Thomas Baltimore Jr., quickly identifies its heavy concentration in San Francisco as a strategic advantage.
2017 — A $130 million renovation is completed at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square. The 1,921-room property is the largest hotel on the U.S. West Coast.
February 2020 — San Francisco immediately becomes one of the hardest-hit travel markets amid the burgeoning COVID-19 crisis. Its heavy exposure in the city, plus Facebook canceling a major event, leads Park Hotels & Resorts to lose roughly $1.5 million in business.
August 2020 — Despite group and business travel coming to a complete halt, Baltimore says his company remains focused on "big-box" hotels in major markets.
March 2021 — Park executives express hope that 2022 will finally mark a robust turnaround in San Francisco, noting their hotels in the market have had success rebooking groups for that time frame. The Parc 55 and Hilton Union Square are closed during this period due to lack of demand.
May 2021 — A stronger-than-expected leisure travel rebound spurs Park to reopen the Hilton Union Square earlier than original projections.
November 2021 — Park announces plans to reopen the Parc 55 by the end of the year to capitalize on the return of the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in early 2022.
February 2022 — Park executives once again express long-term confidence in San Francisco despite the city's significant headwinds.
"San Francisco is [a market] that many people are quite down on, but I'd say it's important to remove some of the emotional clutter and negative energy that's out there and just step back for a second to think about the city," Baltimore said. "It's one of the greatest cities of the world [with] innovation, creativity, the number of universities that are located there, the venture capital anchored there.
"So I think the demise of San Francisco is a bit premature. Obviously safety and security is an issue. I was personally out there in December with another REIT CEO meeting not only with the mayor but the chief of police, their chief of staff and really stressing the need for the safety and security issue."
August 2022 — Park announces plans to sell off as much as $400 million worth of hotels in order to lower its debt burden and reinvest in its existing portfolio or its own stock. They simultaneously announced the Parc 55 has officially reopened, although the reopening was delayed to the second quarter of 2022.
December 2022 — Park begins reworking its debt somewhat by amending and restating its revolving credit facility, increasing it to $950 million.
February 2023 — With $1.9 billion in liquidity in total for the company, Wall Street analysts question Park's long-term plans in light of the nearing maturity date on the $725 million in CMBS debt — especially in light of San Francisco's depressed hotel performance following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Baltimore urged observers and investors not to worry as the company had successfully managed its debt load in recent years.
"At the beginning of the pandemic when everything was closed and we had debt maturities and the world thought Park wasn't going to be around much longer, we didn't panic," he said. "We did three bond deals. We pushed out maturities. We paid off 98% of the bank debt. You'll note that when we went to recast our revolver, the banks welcomed us with open arms. It was done quickly and efficiently, and we were one of the few that were able to upsize in that environment. So we've got a very seasoned and experienced team here. We know how to handle the situation."
May 2023 — Baltimore now says "all options are being explored" on how to cope with the Hilton San Francisco Union Square and Parc 55's heavy debt load including possibly handing back the keys to the properties.
The comments mark a significant, long-term shift in the REIT's outlook on San Francisco.
"San Francisco historically has been a high beta market, so it goes through these periods of boom and bust," he said. "This is clearly a tougher period now, but we are seeing it certainly begin to recover. I think that recovery is going to be a little more elongated."
June 2023 — Park Hotels & Resorts officials say they're stopping payment on the $725 million debt on the two properties, noting the move will give the REIT better cash flow.
“After much thought and consideration, we believe it is in the best interest for Park’s stockholders to materially reduce our current exposure to the San Francisco market," Baltimore said.
August 2023 — Baltimore expresses a desire to spend less time talking about the fate of San Francisco as a travel market, noting walking away from their two largest properties there decreases their exposure significantly.
"It's not helpful to the overall narrative for Park that we continue to have to talk about San Francisco, but we realize until it's completely removed from the portfolio and is still in guidance, we still have to address it," he told analysts. "If you take that out, that was the lion's share of the reason we had a modest 2% reduction in guidance to the midpoint. It is San Francisco. We'd rather talk about Hawaii and the explosive growth we're seeing given the fact we still don't have the Japanese traveler."
November 2023 — The Parc 55 San Francisco and the Hilton San Francisco Union Square are officially placed in receivership, and Baltimore says walking away from the $725 million obligation significantly improves his company's financial outlook.
"We've eliminated the noise around San Francisco," he said. "We could not be prouder. ... We are glad to be moving forward. There is a clear path forward and really positive tailwinds for Park as we look forward."
Michelle Russo of HotelAVE is named receiver on behalf of Wilmington Trust
June 2024 — Continuing its broader scaling back in the Bay Area, Park announces plans to close the Hilton Oakland Airport.
March 2025 — CMBS bondholders Trimont Real Estate Advisors announce a buyer has been selected for the two properties, without further details.
July 2025 — The expected sale of the properties is viewed as a bellwether of San Francisco's future tourism rebound.
August 2025 — Court-set deadlines for a completed sale are repeatedly extended through the summer of 2025, with a final deadline set for October as the unnamed buyers, the receiver and Hilton work to amend existing management agreements. Existing agreements for the property extend to 2040.
September 2025 — New York-based investment groups Newbond and Conversant are named as buyers of the two properties. The purchase agreement gets court approval on Sept. 25.