Reader Primetime let me know that the Ritz-Carlton Bacara Resort was sold for $529 million to Brookfield Properties of New York.  This is the largest non-oil sale in Santa Barbara County history. The official buying entity is Ruby SB Hotel LLC and the City of Goleta earned a $583,855.90 transfer tax on the sale.  I am told that a restaurant refresh is in the works.

The transaction follows several others involving Brookfield Properties in recent months. In May, the company announced its purchase of the Watermark Portfolio, a hospitality portfolio which included 1,080 rooms in Southern California. In total, the $3.8 billion deal included 25 properties totaling over 8,100 rooms in 14 states. The Southern California properties that were part of the transaction include the Bacara, the 350-room Westin Pasadena, and the 372-room Marriott La Jolla. Prior to that, the company also purchased the DreamWorks property, a 14.7-acre headquarters campus in Glendale.