An enchanting five-star resort on a private hillside along the Central Coast recently sold to one of Los Angeles’ tech millionaires.
The El Encanto hotel in Santa Barbara, previously owned by the French luxury brand LVMH, is now in the hands of Justin Mateen, one of the co-founders of Tinder. Tyler Mateen, Justin’s brother, and Culver Capital were also partners in the sale; the 90-room property sold for $82.2 million.
“We look at it as we’re buying 20% of the class A luxury hospitality market in Santa Barbara, which we believe is a growing market,” Tyler Mateen told Bloomberg.
In addition to the $82.2 million, investors also plan to spend up to $40 million on renovations, according to the LA Times. The El Encanto hotel is a historic property featuring Spanish Colonial Revival architecture, which was popular with celebrities from the early days of Hollywood. Its guests included stars such as Hedy Lamarr, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, as well as politicians such as Franklin D. Roosevelt and John Kennedy Jr…