Graduate Palo Alto

AJ Capital Partners announced today that it has acquired the President Hotel Apartments, formerly Hotel President, in Palo Alto, California. The six-story building is located on University Avenue, in the heart of downtown Palo Alto. Completed in 1929, the iconic Hotel President was named to honor then-President Herbert Hoover, who was one of the first students to enroll at Stanford University. Currently a mix of retail and apartments, the building will undergo an historic renovation to convert to Graduate Palo Alto, part of the Graduate Hotels® collection, and open in 2020. Following the renovation, the hotel will offer 100 guestrooms, a lobby coffee shop, street level retail and the restoration of its original rooftop garden. AJ Capital selected LoanCore Capital to provide financing for the project.

Prominently situated in the center of Palo Alto's downtown, the hotel is conveniently proximate to Stanford University's educational, medical and research campuses and Stanford Stadium, and within walking distance to Palo Alto's most popular restaurants, retailers, galleries and theaters. With many of the nation's leading entrepreneurial, service and venture capital firms located in Palo Alto and Silicon Valley, as well as a diverse mix of lifestyle and recreational amenities in the area, Graduate Palo Alto will be an ideal location for business and leisure travelers alike.

Created for travelers who seek memory-making journeys, Graduate Hotels® are a well-curated, thoughtfully-crafted collection of hotels that reside in the most dynamic university-anchored cities across the country. Every property celebrates and commemorates the optimistic energy of its community, while offering an extended retreat to places that played host to the best days of our lives. There are currently 11 Graduate Hotels open and operating across the U.S. and an additional nine hotels under development and slated to open by 2020.

"We are incredibly proud to announce the acquisition of Palo Alto's Hotel President, one of the first hotels built in Palo Alto," says Ben Weprin, Founder and CEO of AJ Capital Partners. "The opportunity to restore an iconic and historical Palo Alto landmark back to its original intent is the exact type of project that defines our company's mission."

The building will undergo a comprehensive renovation, which will touch all guestrooms, corridors and the lobby, while still preserving its façade and interior historic elements in order to restore the hotel's original luster.