Hotels in the Hills

With its celebrity residents yet small-town feel, Calabasas has become an ideal spot for boutique hotels – as exemplified by the Anza, the Hilton Garden Inn and Cambria Hotel Calabasas.

“We are the newest hotel and we are the only one in Malibu Canyon,” said Jake Jesson, senior project manager at Malibu-based Weintraub Real Estate Group, which developed and owns the 125-key Cambria Hotel Calabasas.

The hotel, which opened in January, is part of Rockville, Maryland-based franchisor Choice Hotels International’s Cambria brand, which encompasses more than 60 locations nationwide.

The modern-looking hotel, located at 26300 Rondell Road, pushes the boundary of boutique hospitality. It has meeting spaces and a full-service restaurant and bar with contemporary California cuisine. There’s also an outdoor pool with sun loungers and free parking with EV charging stations.

“The biggest thing that we have is location due to its proximity to Malibu but also hiking,” Jesson said. 

The hotel is adjacent to the Santa Monica Mountains and the Juan Bautista de Anza trail and it’s a short drive away from Zuma Beach and Pepperdine University.

“It’s a real vacation for those who want to enjoy the outdoors in Calabasas,” Jesson said.

Elsewhere in the market, the 122-room Anza opened at 23627 Calabasas Road in May 2013 as an upscale independent hotel after a $6 million renovation. The property had been developed by Channel West Group and Arris Investments LLC, affiliates of Evolution Hospitality. The location was formerly a Country Inn and Suites.

The small hotel offers rooms with contemporary design, outdoor pool with cabanas and easy center-of-town access, located catty corner from Caruso’s popular The Commons at Calabasas outdoor mall.

Another boutique is the Hilton Garden Inn at 24150 Park Sorrento, which went through substantial renovation work during the coronavirus crisis.

Although the hotel industry suffered a major setback because of the pandemic, the hotel’s owner took advantage of the slow business period to optimistically forge ahead with site renovations.

“In the corona scenario, there is so much uncertainty,” the Mian Cos. Chief Executive Tahir “T.M.” Mian told the Business Journal in September 2020. “The decisions you have to make – you hang loose and see what time it breaks.”

With the 192-key Hilton Garden Inn, which stands next door to The Commons at Calabasas, Mian went full-throttle on revamping the rooms, common areas and signage.

As a franchisee, Mian belongs to an 862-hotel fraternity under the Hilton Garden Inn moniker, which replaced the CrestHill by Hilton brand in the late 1980s. So, it is his obligation to maintain and regularly update to HGI standards and aesthetics.

When Mian – after many years of owning and operating Hilton-brand hotels in other markets, including in Oxnard – continued his franchise agreement with Hilton regarding HGI Calabasas, the contractual expectation from Hilton Worldwide was that he would refresh the hotel.  

“After 20 years, the franchise agreement with Hilton expired (on HGI Calabasas),” Mian said, “(and) I entered into a new franchise agreement. They decided to give me a 15-year franchise. They did a property inspection. Everything had to be brand new.”

Since the renovations ended last year, Mian said business at his Calabasas location has been “doing pretty good.”

The timing turned out to be auspicious.

“Absolutely, what a smart move it was,” Mian said. “We took advantage of a time when there was low occupancy. It worked out.”

Recent market

Today, affluent Calabasas evokes glamour and class and is a household name but that wasn’t always the case.

Fred Gaines, a former mayor of Calabasas, remembers a sleepier time when the only hotel alternatives in the horse-riding community were the Country Inn on the side of the 101 freeway prior to its redevelopment into the Anza; and the Good Nite Inn — which is still in business — serving as the budget lodging.

“Calabasas has become kind of an attraction,” Gaines said. “Not only because of the Commons.”

Gaines believes that celebrities who lived in town had a lot to do with elevating Calabasas’ profile thanks to cable television.

“We were sort of the center of reality shows,” Gaines said, recalling how it started with Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson and then Denise Richards before the explosive success of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” in 2007 pushed the Calabasas brand over the top.

“We had Britney Spears living in Calabasas and making headlines, we had Justin Bieber living in Calabasas and making headlines,” Gaines said. “That certainly raised the cache.”  

Gaines remembers a Valley Economic Alliance brokers event was held where they identified about a dozen parcels prime for redevelopment.

“We said we’d love to do some hotels,” Gaines said. “Two of the spots were where the Cambria is and the Ayres was going to be next door.”

The Ayres Hotel was approved by the City Council. However, it was shot down by the voters.

“Now we have the new Cambria, which is beautifully done,” Gaines said. “Out of that, at least we got one hotel.”

Gaines believes having these boutique hotels in town are a good economic engine for the city.

“The transit occupancy tax has become a significant revenue generator,” Gaines said. “The Cambria is estimated to generate for the city of Calabasas about $1 million a year.”

It’s also good for local retail, such as the shopping center at Lost Hills, which has never been fully occupied. 

“It’s had a lot of turnover over the years,” Gaines said. “Having hotels on the west side will help those shopping centers and keep some of those businesses going over there.”

Another benefit for the hotels are the headquarters of significant companies in the west Calabasas area such as the Cheesecake Factory and Harbor Freight Tools.

“All of the people doing business there were staying at hotels at Agoura Hills or Warner Center,” Gaines said. “Having hotels (in Calabasas) will keep them there.”

Development in Calabasas can move slowly, as it took a few years until Weintraub Real Estate Group was able to break ground on the Cambria project.

“Calabasas, they’re good and easy to work with as long as it follows their boundaries,” Jesson said. “The staff went great but it did take a while. We had three City Council hearings.”

Construction work began on the hotel in July 2019. 

“As a fourth-generation Angeleno, I focus my attention on projects that stand to serve as long-lasting benefits to local communities, and I’m excited to partner with Choice because I know they work the same way,” said Richard Weintraub, president and founder of the company, said at the hotel’s groundbreaking. “The hotel’s location has the best of both worlds: major businesses and access to some of the most beautiful beaches on the west coast, all of which will offer an unmatched experience to future Cambria guests.”

Then the pandemic hit in spring 2020 while the project was still under construction.

“Covid was difficult,” Jesson said. “Products, manpower was difficult. But we were able to navigate the process. We had a general contractor who had good relationships with their subcontractors.”

The build itself wasn’t hard. However, Jesson described the lead time with materials such as lumber and smaller fixtures “was probably our biggest challenge.”

Since the hotel opened earlier this year, the company has been very pleased with the turnout.

“We are the number one Cambria (Hotel) from the guest index standpoint,” said Jesson.

Weintraub Real Estate Group, which develops residential, multifamily and hospitality projects, is currently in the early stages of creating a 74-room Auberge Hotel in Palm Springs on four acres. The project goes through plan check in June and the company is hoping to break ground on it in the fourth quarter.

Jesson said the Weintraub Real Estate Group would be open to creating another Cambria hotel if the right opportunity presented itself.

“We would love to build another Cambria,” Jesson said. “Right now, we don’t have our sights set on another, but we’d be happy to partner with Choice again.”