Element Hotel sold to San Diego investment firm
A suburban hotel most famous for hosting a 2012 presidential pizza run has sold.
The 123-unit Element Hotel at 10555 Discovery Drive, near the 215 Beltway and Town Center Drive in Summerlin, was picked up for $17.1 million by Pacifica Cos., a San Diego investment firm.
Seller LaPour Partners initially developed the property in 2008 as a companion hotel to the neighboring and now-defunct Nevada Cancer Institute, as a place for the institute’s patients and families to stay.
But it garnered its highest profile in 2012, when President Barack Obama stayed there while in town to give a speech on clean energy. The president’s team took over the second floor and called in a 12-pizza delivery order to Dom DeMarco’s pizza at 9785 W. Charleston Blvd. The eatery doesn’t deliver, but it made an exception for the Element run.
The publicity may have helped the hotel survive the cancer institute’s 2013 closure: LaPour Partners President Jeff LaPour said the property is the top-performing location in the company’s 19-hotel chain, which includes hotels in Aspen, Colo.; Baltimore; Houston; Miami; and Boston.
“The market is recovering and it’s the right time for us to realize the value,” LaPour said. “Pacifica is getting a great asset with a strong future.”
Maxim Hotel Brokerage of Newport Beach, Calif., represented LaPour Partners.
“The hotel is in very good condition, has been showing strong improvement and is located in an area with a bright outlook,” said Jack Carr, a founding principal in the brokerage.
Maxim executives said the hotel caters to corporate weekday guests, as well as sports teams and the social, military, education, religious and fraternal segment.
Pacifica executives didn’t return a call seeking comment.
The company’s website lists more than 30 development ventures, including hotel, residential and commercial projects in Nevada, California, Arizona, Washington and Florida.
Element is its fifth local hotel buy in 22 months. Most notably, it purchased in December the 493-room Westin Lake Las Vegas — coincidentally also a crash pad for Obama during the 2012 campaign — for $25 million. It also owns the Courtyard Las Vegas at 2800 N. Green Valley Parkway and the Hampton Inn & Suites at 4280 S. Grand Canyon Drive.
Contact Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com. Find @_JRobison on Twitter.