IRVINE – Bob Alter, a well-known hotel investor who grew Irvine-based Sunstone Hotel Investors into one of the country’s largest hotel REITs and mentored many Orange County hospitality leaders, has died. He was 75.

Alter passed away peacefully at home on Aug. 15, surrounded by his family, according to the Young Presidents Organization, where he was a longtime member.

According to reports, he had been ill recently.

Born March 5, 1951, in New York, Alter graduated from Cornell University’s world-renowned School of Hotel Administration in 1973 and began his career in the hotel industry.

Three years later, he and a partner purchased their first hotel and moved to Colorado, where they grew Mountain Resorts to 10 hotels.

He moved again to California and later founded Sunstone in 1985. He spent over 20 years growing the company through hotel acquisitions, development and renovations.

Alter, a resident of Newport Beach, is most known for taking Sunstone public in 1995. Four years later, he led a management buyout with Westbrook Partners, taking the company private in a deal worth over $900 million.

He took Sunstone public again in 2004 as a hotel real estate investment trust, valued at about $1.6 billion.

According to his Cornell bio, during his time leading Sunstone, the company acquired 125 hotels with more than 20,000 rooms and completed about $1 billion in renovations and brand conversions.

Among the well-known hotels Sunstone acquired include the 444-room Fairmont Newport Beach, known today as The Renaissance Newport Beach Hotel, the former Hyatt Newporter now known as the Newport Beach, the Century Plaza in Los Angeles and the Hilton Times Square in New York.

Most recently, Alter served as chief executive of Seaview Investors, a privately owned hotel investment company in Newport Beach. He also founded Sunstone Hotel Investors, where he was chairman emeritus (NYSE: SHO).

Founded in 2006, Newport Beach-based Seaview Investors owns and operates seven hotels across Southern and Northern California, including properties under Hilton and Marriott brands.

Alter oversaw the company’s operations and specialized in adaptive reuse projects, including converting office buildings into hotels. Notable projects include the dual-branded Curio by Hilton and Homewood Suites by Hilton near Los Angeles International Airport and the AC Hotel by Marriott Beverly Hills.

The Business Journal honored Alter at its Excellence in Entrepreneurship Awards in 2006. He also received Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year award in 1998 and Cornell’s Hospitality Innovator Award in 2008.

Remembering Bob

Bob Olson, a longtime friend and founder of R.D. Olson Development, said Alter mentored him as he entered hotel development, offering advice on structuring deals after Olson brought him into his YPO chapter in 1993.

“I’m a hotel developer because of Bob Alter,” Olson told the Business Journal. “I can say that with pride.”

Olson said Alter also mentored others who later led hotel companies or started their own businesses.

“His legacy really is everyone that he helped along the way,” Olson said.
Marriott International President and CEO Anthony Capuano was one of those Alter mentored.

Capuano credited Alter with leaving a lasting mark on the hotel industry.

The two were longtime business partners and served together on Cornell’s Dean’s Advisory Board. And most importantly, they were good friends.

“Few people have contributed to hospitality as meaningfully or as enduringly as Bob Alter,” Capuano said to the Business Journal. “He has been a longtime Marriott partner and someone I have always admired for both his business acumen and his character.”

David Pyle, executive chairman of American Career College and West Coast University, told the Business Journal that Alter was his friend and mentor for 30 years and served on the schools’ board of directors from 2009 to 2017.

“His background in the hospitality industry gave him a unique and valuable perspective, one rooted in service, care, and the importance of making people feel seen and valued,” Pyle said.

After stepping down from daily leadership at Sunstone, Alter kept investing in hotels through Seaview Investors, including projects across Southern California.

Alter is survived by his wife, Joni, and his children, Elizabeth, Solomon and Sam.

Services were not announced at press time.