San Manuel pays $241.4 million for Fairmont Scottsdale Princess hotel portion

The San Manuel Investment Authority bought the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess, and records put $241.4 million on the hotel portion. The recorded amount covers 750 keys with furniture, fixtures and equipment, plus a surface parking lot and a parking garage — about $322,000 per key. The Real Deal reported the Scottsdale purchase on Oct. 8, citing the Phoenix Business Journal, and said the price for the resort as a whole was not revealed.

This publication's Oct. 7 report on the sale, based on Connect CRE coverage, described the resort changing hands without a price or seller disclosed. Most of the resort sits on land owned by the City of Scottsdale, which suggests the buyer paid for hotel improvements and parking rather than the ground beneath most of the property. No ground-lease terms were disclosed.

The Scottsdale deal is the San Manuel Investment Authority's first acquisition in Arizona, adding to holdings in California, Virginia and Washington, D.C. The authority is the investment arm of the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation, and it has increasingly bought luxury properties without casino or gaming components. Earlier this year it bought the 238-room Mission Inn Hotel & Spa in downtown Riverside.

The resort has six pools, five restaurants, eight retail stores, 316,000 square feet of meeting space, a 44,000-square-foot Well & Being Spa and, per the coverage, the only Sisley Spa in Arizona.