LVMH to sell El Encanto Hotel in Santa Barbara for 82.2 million dollars

French luxury conglomerate LVMH is selling its sole hotel in the United States, the El Encanto in Santa Barbara, California, to a partnership consisting of Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen, his brother Justine Mateen, and Culver Capital for 82.2 million dollars.

The hotel, which consists of 90 rooms, is located in a popular coastal vacation area northwest of Los Angeles and sits on a 7-acre estate, complete with terraced gardens and views of the ocean.

The sale, which sees the hotel transfer ownership from Belmond, the hospitality brand owned by LVMH, means El Encanto will no longer be part of the Belmond chain. The new owners reportedly aim to manage the hotel themselves, as the Marteens aim to acquire a large share of the luxury hospitality market in Santa Barbara.

“We look at it as we’re buying 20 percent of the class A luxury hospitality market in Santa Barbara, which we believe is a growing market,” Tyler Mateen said in an interview Monday. The new owners plan to invest upwards of 40 million US dollars in upgrading the hotel, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times.

“It has a lot of California’s rich history and could be one of the nicest hotels in the US,” said Mateen in the report. “The bones and the structure are irreplaceable.” 

The Mateen brothers currently hold a growing portfolio of real estate and technology investments, which includes a shopping center on Hollywood Boulevard, acquired just last month for 69 million US dollars, and an office and retail complex on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, purchased last year for 211 million US dollars.