In August 2019, a joint venture led by Trinity Investments acquired the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa in Pheonix, Arizona, from Blackstone for $602m, or $633,000 per key.
In May 2025 Trinity agreed to sell the resort to the Nashville-based REIT Ryman Hospitality Properties Inc. for an anticipated $865m, or $911,000 per key.
What the Trinity Investments team achieved at the property during the intervening years is a story that has won them the inaugural HAMA US Asset Management Award at IHIF at New York University this year.
As the largest resort in Arizona, JW Marriott Desert Ridge features 950 guest rooms and 212,000 square feet of flexible indoor and outdoor meeting space.
Rich canvas
“This was obviously a really rich canvas for Trinity’s signature business plan, which centred around a $100m transformation,” said Jake Lynch, vice president of Trinity Investments. “And the resort really needed it because the rooms hadn’t been renovated since it opened in 2002.”
He added: “All credit goes to our best-in-class development team led by Craig Lovett and the lead asset manager Sam Sugarman.”
The $100m was used not only to upgrade the guest rooms, meeting, and public spaces, but to add revenue-generating amenities, with the goal to drive transient demand and win over a larger proportion of premium corporate groups, rather than relying on lower value association business, as the resort had done in the past.
The renovation began in May 2021 and proceeded in three phases to minimise displacement during peak seasons. It was completed by 2023 on time and on budget in spite of COVID-related disruptions.
Beyond renovation
The new amenities include the transformation and extension of existing swimming pools into a full water park with new slides and a new adults-only pool called Sky Island, bookable by groups, as well as a large amount of premium seating throughout the park featuring cabanas, fire pits, and waterfalls. Trinity added two destination restaurants with its celebrity chef partner Angelo Sosa.
Copper Alley, a family-friendly arcade concept, was configured and installed by Player One Amusement Group (P1AG) who required no upfront capex, said Lynch. The amusement arcade is on track to bring in $1.5m of revenue in its first year, he added.
In addition, the Trinity asset management team worked closely with the property and Marriott to introduce several signature programmes: Jingle at JW, a winter theme promotion that drove $1.5m in incremental revenue in its first winter (2024-25) and will be repeated this year.
Jingle at JW experience passes include ice skating, snow tubing, a virtual ski simulator, photo opportunities in a giant sleigh and ski gondola, a gingerbread house display and Hanukkah activities and Menorah lighting displays.
Summer nights at Aqua Ridge saw Trinity invest in LED lighting at the water park to create Instagrammable ‘glow parties.’ This initiative is expected to generate 25,000 incremental room nights in Q3 2025, Lynch said.
Driving performance
Total revenue management practices, such as dynamic pricing, were rolled out across golf, spa, and other recreational amenities. A resorts app for guests, integrated with real-time reservations and marketing platforms, allows guests to book anything around the resort at any time, explained Lynch.
The results? In 2024, net operating income reached $59m, a 50 percent increase over 2019.
The sales team raised corporate groups by 300 basis points as a percentage of overall occupancy and that is expected to increase further in 2027 once the ballroom renovation finishes.
The resort also captured the post-pandemic surge in transient travel which reached an all-time high of 10,000 transient room nights during March 2022.
Additionally, Desert Ridge increased its ancillary revenues by 40 percent compared to the pre-pandemic period, while its competitor set (including Grand Hyatt Scottsdale; Fairmont Scottsdale Princess; Westin Kierland Resort; and JW Marriott Camelback Inn) reported a 30 percent increase. Lynch said Desert Ridge’s superior performance demonstrated the impact of the total revenue management philosophy deployed.
In summary, Lynch said: “This investment demonstrates Trinity’s overall asset management philosophy of acquiring great assets that are in need of fresh capital and fresh business plans, leveraging our best-in-class development team to stretch our capital dollars to maximum effect and deploying our strategic operations asset management team to pull every lever to unlock investor value, and we’re really excited to do more.”
Trinity is a private real estate investment firm with a 29-year history of specialising in value-add opportunities. Based in Honolulu, Hawaii, with offices in Los Angeles, Miami and London, as of March 2025, Trinity has invested more than $10 billion in the United States, Mexico, Europe, and Japan.
All quotes taken from the IHIF NYU 2025 session: ‘Unlocking value: HAMA US Asset Management Achievement Award.’ Trinity Investments were selected as winners of the award.