• SUMPTUOUS SEASIDE HOTEL SELLS FOR RECORD-SHATTERING $360M: LAGUNA BEACH (AP) — An exceedingly opulent seaside resort in Southern California has sold for an eye-popping $360 million.
That price tag for the Montage Laguna Beach — which comes to $1.4 million per room — “shattered the price barrier for California hotels by a wide margin,” hotel consultant Alan Reay of Atlas Hospitality tells the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/1LrB4t2) on Friday.
Only the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai in Hawaii and the Waldorf Astoria in New York sold for more per room in the U.S. The historic Hotel Coronado in San Diego County sold for more than $1 million per room.
Chicago real estate investment trust Strategic Hotels and Resorts Inc. bought the Montage from Ohana Real Estate Investors of Redwood City. Montage Hotels & Resorts will stay on as operator.
The craftsman-style hotel, which opened in 2003, sits on a 50-foot seaside bluff along the South Coast Highway in Laguna Beach on some of the most sought-after real estate on the West Coast.
The hotel caters more to a spa-and-yoga than a bling-and-caviar crowd, with a sunburst-bottomed pool that overlooks the ocean.
Rooms go for $900 a night with bungalows and private villas along lamp-lit walkways that run even higher.
The property was formerly home to a very different entity: The Treasure Island Trailer Park, where Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz shot the movie “The Long, Long Trailer” in 1954.
• YOSEMITE PARK FEE HIKES COMING IN MARCH: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Visitors to Yosemite National Park will pay more to enter and camp overnight, under fee hikes that start March 1.
Yosemite National Park Superintendent Don Neubacher says the park received more than 3,600 emails and Facebook comments and took those into consideration when revising the park fee hikes.
A seven-day pass for each car entering Yosemite will rise from $20 to $25 or $30, depending on the season.
Between April and October, entrance fees will be the higher price. Motorcycle fees will also rise slightly.
The park’s annual pass will increase from $40 to $60.
Campers spending between $5 and $20 a night — depending on the campsite —will pay roughly 20 percent more.
The extra money will go into repairing buildings and improving transportation.
• JERRY BROWN SPENDS LESS THAN GOP CHALLENGER ON RE-ELECTION: SACRAMENTO (AP) — Newly filed reports show that Gov. Jerry Brown spent less than his opponent to get re-elected while also passing two ballot measures.
Final campaign totals reported Friday show Republican candidate Neel Kashkari spent $7.1 million compared to $5.9 million for the Democratic governor.
Brown, who won a historic term last November, spent most of his time and money boosting two measures on the November ballot: a water bond and a new rainy day fund.
Kashkari’s spent more than $3 million of his personal funds.
In 2010, Brown spent $36.5 million to return to the governor’s office while former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman spent $178.5 million.
