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Aetna Springs Resort & Vineyard Estates

Aetna Springs Resort & Vineyard Estates

Napa Valley, California, USA
Aetna Springs Resort & Vineyard Estates comprises over 3,100 acres in the Napa Valley of California. It is Napa’s largest...
Aetna Springs Resort & Vineyard Estates comprises over 3,100 acres in the Napa Valley of California. It is Napa’s largest resort acreage and the last luxury resort to be developed. Alchemy acquired the property in early 2019 for $100 million less than the pension fund owner invested over the prior decade. Within three years, we enhanced values and sold for over 2x its purchase price of $22 million.

Size of property

3,100 acres with plans to develop an 88 key luxury resort, 44 estate lots and over 400 acres of vineyards.

Acquisition Cost

$22 million

Keys

88, which includes 70 guest cottages and 18 luxury glamping tents.

What we accomplished

Secured new permits for the historic resort to maximize its appeal and garner interest from the world’s top luxury resort...
Secured new permits for the historic resort to maximize its appeal and garner interest from the world’s top luxury resort operators. Also obtained planting permits for over 400 acres of new vineyards with water allocations and boost the value of the 44 residential estate lots with premier vineyards. Prior developers spent nearly $140 million and a decade to achieve less value than Alchemy did within three years.

Challenges

Previous developers were unable to restore the historic hot springs resort which had been closed for over 50 years. A...

Previous developers were unable to restore the historic hot springs resort which had been closed for over 50 years. A public pension fund invested nearly $140 million in the prior decade and needed to exit. The 3,100 acre site is the largest resort and residential estate property in Napa Valley and posed a daunting challenge to all who considered it. We saw the opportunity when others could not.

We had a clear vision of the building blocks to create a financially feasible plan and resurrect this historic hot springs resort. We worked cooperatively with Napa County to secure permit revisions to make the resort attractive to leading luxury operators and negotiated novel financial guarantees of performance from them. We also obtained planting permits and water allocations for over 400 acres of vineyards whose value alone exceeded our entire purchase costs.

ROI

$25 million gain over $22 million purchase price. Over 20% IRR and 2x multiple on investment within three years.