(Above) L’Auberge Del Mar, a resort in southern California recently purchased by the company that owns Hotel Sax and Westin Michigan Avenue in Chicago. (Click on image to view larger version.)

December 9, 2012 – The real estate investment trust that owns Marina City’s Hotel Sax has purchased a luxury resort in the affluent seaside community of Del Mar, California. L’Auberge (“the inn”) Del Mar is a 120-room full service luxury resort that overlooks the Pacific Ocean from 4.5 acres. It is the 39th hotel owned entirely by LaSalle Hotel Properties, based in Bethesda, Maryland, which announced the purchase on Friday.

“The property is in excellent condition,” reports LaSalle CEO Michael Barnello, “and is extremely well located in a strong market which benefits from numerous demand generators.”

Demand generators include Del Mar Beach, Del Mar Racetrack, Torrey Pines Golf Course, and University of California, San Diego.

The $640,000 cost-per-room is the highest paid this year for any hotel in California, according to Atlas Hospitality Group, a California-based hotel broker, and reported on Friday by North County Times. Barnello told the San Diego newspaper that LaSalle was attracted to the property because it overlooks the ocean and would be difficult to duplicate elsewhere on the nearby coastline.

“To amass 4.5 acres, to get that view and the permitting, it could take 15 years,” he told North County Times. “In a market like that it’s easier to buy than to build.”

The resort opened in 1989 and was extensively renovated in 2009. It has four restaurant/bars, 12 meeting areas, and a spa/fitness center.