Almost a decade after the Pendry hotel made its debut in downtown San Diego, control of the high-profile Gaslamp Quarter property has changed hands, with the new owner paying $147 million for it.
The transaction, which was recorded last month by the San Diego County Recorder’s Office, is technically a change in ownership of the downtown leasehold from an LLC that had been managed by the Robert Green Co. — the developer of the Pendry — to a new LLC called 5J Hospitality controlled by the luxury hotel brand Montage International.
The 317-room Pendry is part of Pendry Hotels & Resorts, an upscale lifestyle hotel brand that is an offshoot of the high-end luxury Montage hotels. It launched a decade ago with the opening of the Pendry on J Street in the Gaslamp Quarter. The San Diego hotel operates under an existing 99-year lease that the Robert Green Co. was able to secure in 2012 from the owner of the J Street property in anticipation of developing the Pendry. The hotel, which opened in 2017, was a $120 million project that includes multiple dining and drinking venues, as well as a spa.
Green, a longtime hotel developer, declined this week to comment on the leasehold transfer, confirming only that his company had been the manager of the original LLC, known as RGC Gaslamp, that was formed to develop the hotel. It is listed as the entity that sold the leasehold for a price of $147 million, although the makeup of the LLC is not disclosed.
A document showing a refinancing in 2023 of the Pendry hotel loan identifies the ownership as the Robert Green Co., private invester Dan Kloiber of Austin, Texas, and Montage Hotels & Resorts.
Like Green, Kloiber would not comment on the transfer of the leasehold to a new ownership.
Alan Fuerstman (right), founder of Montage International, and son Michael, who oversees the Pendry Hotels & Resorts brand, stand in one of the Pendry San Diego’s suites when it opened in 2017. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The Union-Tribune reached out to two of the principals of Montage International — founder Alan Fuerstman and his son Michael, co-founder of Pendry Hotels & Resort — but neither one returned phone calls seeking comment. Emailed questions were sent to the Pendry’s public relations firm seeking information about the sale, but they were not answered. Instead, a general statement was provided by Kacey Bruno, senior vice president, communications, for Montage International, that said the following:
“Pendry San Diego holds a special place in our history as the hotel that introduced the Pendry brand nearly a decade ago. From the very beginning, we believed in the strength of San Diego as a luxury hospitality destination, and the success of this hotel has consistently reinforced that conviction. We’re incredibly proud of what has been built alongside our longtime partners, Robert Green and the Kloiber family, whose vision helped bring Pendry to life in the Gaslamp Quarter. Today, Pendry San Diego remains a cornerstone of the Pendry portfolio, and we’re excited to build on this momentum, continue enhancing the guest experience, and remain an integral part of downtown San Diego for years to come.”
The county Assessor’s Office explained that while technically, it was a change in the assignment of the Pendry hotel lease that took place, it still represents a sale.
“When determining the reassessability of property transfers, the county Assessor will sometimes request documents from the entities, such as LLC operating agreements, to determine if a reassessable change in ownership had occurred,” said Jeff Olson, of the assessor’s Taxpayer Advocate Office. “In this case, we will not request documents, as the parties themselves have declared consideration of $147 million and have paid the documentary transfer tax of $161,700.”
The change in the Pendry ownership comes at a time when Green’s company is pursuing development of a major mixed-use project, also in downtown San Diego. Just a couple of months ago, the San Diego City Council agreed to pursue negotiations with Green for the right to redevelop a city-owned site at Seventh Avenue and Market Street that at one time was destined for a Ritz-Carlton hotel.
The council decision was in response to an unsolicited proposal by Green to build a high-rise tower that would include 460 housing units, of which 15% would be income-restricted for 55 years. The negotiating agreement between the city and Green, which also contemplates a small boutique hotel, does not obligate the city to approve the development itself.
Green had twice lost out in previous efforts to redevelop the much-debated block where Cisterra Development had planned to build a 160-room Ritz-Carlton hotel and 58 Ritz-branded condos, a Whole Foods Market, 115 apartments, and 32 affordable housing units. The project, though, failed to materialize, as did a subsequent effort to build more than 400 low-income units on the site.
Several years ago, Green had hoped to build a second hotel in the Gaslamp Quarter, but he said recently that plans for his proposed 240-room Fourth and J project remain on hold amid still high interest rates and escalating construction and labor costs. His most recently completed project was in 2020 when the luxury Montage resort opened in Sonoma Wine Country.
His firm also had been involved in a luxury resort project in La Quinta, but those plans went awry when a development firm managed by the Robert Green Co. filed for bankruptcy in 2024. Green, in an interview with the Union-Tribune in June, blamed the financial struggles with the project on the pandemic, which he said led to the collapse of his lender.