The University of California system has purchased the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Half Moon Bay, which sits along San Mateo County's oceanfront, for about $193 million, according to the San Francisco Chronicle and CoStar.
Records filed on Oct. 20 with the San Mateo County Recorder’s Office show a deed change of the property to the hotel buyer, Regency Half Moon Bay LLC, whose listed address traces back to the university system’s headquarters in Oakland.
Although university officials have not publicly discussed or disclosed their intent to purchase the luxury hotel, this would be the investment division's second hotel purchase in the past year. In October 2025, UC Investments, which manages the University of California's retirement, endowment, working
capital and cash assets, purchased the Residence Inn Berkeley, a 331-room hotel, for nearly $175 million.
UC Investments purchased the Ritz-Carlton hotel at a significant discount, as the San Mateo County Assessor’s Office originally valued the property at about $241.8 million. The 261-room 5-star resort opened in 2001 and offered guests Pacific Ocean views, along with a spa and a parkland-style golf course on the property; it became one of the region's largest employers.
Before the sale, the previous owner of the Ritz-Carlton location, Strategic Hotels & Resorts, was audited by the City of Half Moon Bay, which reviewed the hotel's books between 2021 and 2024 and found that it owed about $2.16 million in unpaid hotel taxes and interest.
Strategic Hotels & Resorts appealed the City of Half Moon Bay's audit and requested relief from the tax bill from the city council in September. The council rejected the request and required the resort to pay the full bill.
The city was notified a few weeks later that Strategic Hotels & Resorts intended to sell the Ritz-Carlton to Regency Half Moon Bay LLC for an undisclosed price. Ultimately, the property exchanged hands for about $193 million, significantly higher than the $124 million Strategic Hotels & Resorts paid for the resort in 2004, according to public records.
Although it may seem odd that the University of California would want to own a 5-star resort, UC Investment has publicly said it wants to focus much of its financial investment on the real estate market.
Jagdeep Singh Bachher, the University of California’s chief investment officer, echoed this sentiment when UC Investment announced it would invest $4 billion in Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust in 2023.
“In the current environment, investors can benefit from stable cash-flowing investments that can grow with high global inflation," Bachher said in 2023. "We consider BREIT to be one of the best positioned, large-scale real estate portfolios in the U.S., managed by one of the world’s top real estate investors."
UC Investments currently manages a portfolio of about $236 billion in total investments.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: UC buys Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay for $193M. Here's why
