San Jose hotel may head for sales block after mega sports events end

SAN JOSE - A lender hopes to sell a big San Jose hotel in 2026 that it had seized through a foreclosure, but the financial firm first wants to harvest the benefits of visits to the region arising from this year’s big-time sports events.

The Signia by Hilton hotel in downtown San Jose may head to the sales block in the coming months, BrightSpire Capital told Wall Street analysts during a conference call to discuss the company’s fourth-quarter financial results.

“We really want to sell that asset,” BrightSpire chief executive officer Michael Mazzei told analysts during a Feb. 18 conference call, referring to the Signia hotel tower at 170 South Market St. in San Jose.

BrightSpire wound up as the hotel’s owner after the lender foreclosed on the property in a transaction that placed an $80 million value on the 541-room lodging tower - 41% less than the $134 million loan that BrightSpire provided.

“We have a lot of things going on in San Jose during the course of the year that will help the cash flow” of the Signia by Hilton hotel, Mazzei said. “So I think we are looking more toward the back half of the year for that asset,” he added, referring to the timing of the sale of the San Jose hotel tower.

The conference call with the analysts took place about 10 days after the Super Bowl that was held in Santa Clara on Feb. 8, an NFL championship game that buoyed the hotel’s fortunes.

“The event went very well,” Mazzei said, referring to the Super Bowl. “The staff handled the volume incredibly well.”

San Jose also was poised to benefit from March Madness games in the men’s college basketball tournament that were held at the SAP Center. Plus, tech titan Nvidia held a major conference at the downtown San Jose convention center in March.

What’s more, in June and early July, six matches for the FIFA World Cup are scheduled to be played at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara as part of the global championship soccer tournament. Those could provide a further boost for South Bay hotels.

“We have, as you said, these major events coming up that we want to see through,” Mazzei said in answer to a question from a Wall Street analyst.

BrightSpire intends to revamp the Signia by Hilton hotel this year ahead of its potential sale, the company said during the conference call.

“We are doing some deferred maintenance on that right now,” Mazzei said.

The upgrades are expected to be wide-ranging.

“We are upgrading the lobby, and we are upgrading the elevators,” Mazzei said. “The lobby is well underway. We want to redo some of the washrooms and the ballroom.”

The revamp is necessary, especially if BrightSpire aims to sell the hotel, in Mazzei’s view.

“These are things that if you sold the property today, any buyer would look at those items and take those off of the sale price,” Mazzei said.

The operating income of the Signia by Hilton appears strong enough that BrightSpire could sell the hotel for more than the foreclosure value of $80 million, said Alan Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group, which tracks the lodging market.

“BrightSpire could be able to suggest an asking price in the range of $100 million to $110 million for the Signia,” Reay said.

Reay is also seeing some indications of an improved South Bay hotel market.

“Hotel revenue is coming back in San Jose and some of those markets,” Reay said.

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This story was originally published April 17, 2026 at 5:23 AM.