Welcome to Hotel University of California.
The University of California‘s real estate investment arm has shelled out $175.8 million for Residences Inn Berkeley, a 16-story, 331-room mid-rise that is downtown’s biggest hotel and the second largest in the city.
While a spokesman for the UC Investments arm declined to comment on the purchase, Berkeley sources familiar with the plan said the university would continue to operate it as a full-service hotel with the same management and business model currently in place.
Rumors of the deal, which was first reported by the San Francisco Business Times, had been swirling for weeks along with speculation that the property at 2121 Center St. might be converted into student housing, which would have taken a bite out of the roughly $7 million in annual revenue the city receives from transient occupancy taxes.
That turned out to be unfounded, according to Jeffrey Church, chief executive officer of Visit Berkeley.
“The sale going over to UC doesn’t change what the operation looks like,” Church said. “It’s business as normal. They are continuing to work daily to make sure our guests are taken care of. We have had nothing but great responses from visitors who stay there.”
John Caner, chief executive officer of the Downtown Berkeley Association, said he had met with UC officials who had assured him that the hotel would continue to cater to visitors. He said there is an “obvious alignment” between the hotel and the university, which regularly puts on conferences and hosts a steady stream of visiting professors and speakers.
“For a university to own a conference hotel makes a lot of sense,” he said. “They do a lot of conferences.”
Caner added that maintaining the property as a full-service downtown hotel is “really, really important from an economic and cultural vibrancy standpoint.”
“While we love students, they are only here about 60% of the time,” he said. “They are campus oriented. They are not going out to fine dining.”
But while the deal might be good for downtown Berkeley, University of California’s willingness to spend big money on real estate deals shows misplaced priorities, according to Dan Russell, president and chief negotiator for the University Professional & Technical Employees, which is currently negotiating a new contract with UC Berkeley. The last contract expired at the end of September.
“It’s clear that UC has a set of priorities – on the one hand they are quick to write a check for a new building while, on the other, workers are receiving layoff notices at the expense of our students, patients, and research,” Russell said. “We hope their new hotel serves the people of California as well as the workers they continue to lay off have.”
About 200 UPTE members were laid off in June of this year and on Wednesday the UCSF Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases announced the elimination of 28 positions – two faculty and 26 staff positions.
This article originally published at Berkeley hotel adjacent to UC campus purchased by California university system .
