SAN FRANCISCO? Construction on the new 261-room oceanfront Ritz-Carlton hotel and spa in Half Moon Bay, CA has begun as a result of a joint venture formed between Vestar-Athens and Lend Lease Real Estate Investments. The $50 million destination resort was funded by The Prudential Life Insurance Co., arranged by Lend Lease?s Finance Group. The joint venture created to develop the hotel and spa consists of Vestar-Athens, a partnership of The Athens Group and Vestar Development Co., and Yarmouth Capital Partners, L.P.II, an opportunistic real estate investment fund managed by Lend Lease Real Estate Investments. Located on 14.4 acres along the Ocean Colony bluff facing the Pacific Ocean, the new Ritz-Carlton hotel lodge will have 211 guestrooms, a dining room, 14,000-squarefoot health spa, retail space, and 17,000 square feet of meeting and function space. The resort will also feature three detached bungalow buildings which will house an additional 50 guestrooms. Due to the high barrier-to-entry fundamentals of the Half Moon Bay market, which is located 50 minutes from downtown San Francisco, and the complex land use regulatory process in northern California, ?it makes it impossible to duplicate this type of oceanfront resort development,? said Kim Richards, president of The Athens Group. Lend Lease is also involved with The Athens Group on luxury developments in San Antonio, TX, Vail, CO, Scottsdale, AZ and Laguna Beach, CA.
