One of Arizona’s most historic hotels looks fresh-faced for 95.Several years ago, the Arizona Biltmore embarked on a $170 million transformation. When the first phase was completed in 2021, the resort’s cottages were upgraded with a contemporary desert design, the adults-only Saguaro Pool opened, water slides were added to the Paradise Pool and food and beverage offerings were overhauled, including adding the poolside Spire Bar and rebranding the flagship restaurant to Latin-inspired steakhouse Renata’s Hearth.Since then, all the rooms on the 39-acre resort have been updated. The renovation was finished in 2023.Today, the look and feel of the Biltmore are continuing to evolve after a private equity firm in London purchased the Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired resort for $705 million. Henderson Park, the new buyers, implemented a few immediate changes while others are yet to come.With the continued evolutions of the Biltmore coinciding with its 95th birthday, managing partner Michael Hoffman acknowledged the property’s legacy in jumpstarting metro Phoenix’s resort tourism industry and representing part of the city’s culture and history.”We don’t need to be a Ritz-Carlton,” Hoffman said. “This is not a cookie-cutter hotel.”Henderson Park ‘bought a successful hotel’When resort hotels transfer ownership, typically the new owners will make significant changes aimed at attracting guests. Henderson Park, the Biltmore’s new owner, did just that with many of the hotels it acquired in the past. Its website stated it oversaw extensive renovations of the historic La Quinta Resort & Club in Palm Springs, California and the Salamander DC Hotel in Washington, D.C.The Biltmore’s previous owner oversaw an extensive renovation already, when it was acquired in 2018 from the Singapore government’s sovereign wealth fund GIC Private Limited.Blackstone Real Estate Group, the world’s largest private real estate equity firm, updated the resort with refreshed guest rooms and cottages, new food and beverage experiences, the Tierra Luna Spa, the adults-only Saguaro Pool and the water slides in the Paradise Pool.“They (Henderson Park) bought a successful hotel,” Hoffman told The Arizona Republic in an interview at the Biltmore. “It was successful, which is why they bought it. Blackstone spent millions on renovating it.”That’s not to say things will stay the same. Hoffman said there’s still some rooms that need to be renovated, and they’ll be refreshed over the next two years.Biltmore enhances food and spa offeringsThe first changes made — some coming soon, others already introduced — were new menus at the resort’s on-site restaurants, including Renata’s Hearth and McArthur’s, said Maddie Lydon, Arizona Biltmore’s marketing director.At McArthur’s, shareable items like the birria short rib bites and the Thunderbird wings were introduced to enhance the menu’s offerings while also “touching on all the favorites we had in the past,” she said.The new menu also lowered prices for some items, Lydon said.Renata’s Hearth’s current menu includes both New World and Old World Latin dishes, but a new menu will more prominently feature South American cuisine, she said. New items will include snow crab claws, charred strawberry salad, chicharron pork belly and lamb barbacoa.The new owners wanted to emphasize local ingredients in the food preparation. For example, the Biltmore’s restaurants are getting their bread from Noble …
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