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San Diego is getting roomier.
The city of 1.2 million people is experiencing what officials describe as a hotel development explosion. Eleven major hotels--most of them mixed-used projects in and around the Gaslamp District--have opened their doors since 2001, and seven more are in the works.
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The Hilton Convention Center Hotel is viewed by city officials as the lynchpin in their plans to cement San Diego's reputation as a tourist mecca. The hotel is targeted for the former Campbell Shipyard site in downtown's East Village.
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The boom will bring more than 6,100 rooms online by the end of 2007 --almost double downtown's pre-2000 inventory.
"What we're seeing now with the hotel explosion going on is that a lot of it is built on the foundation of redevelopment that we've been putting together for 30 years," said Jason Luker, a spokesperson with the Centre City Development Corp., San Diego's redevelopment agency.
Over the past four years, San Diegans have seen the completion of such projects as the 1,600-room Manchester Grand Hyatt expansion near Seaport Village, the 512-room Omni Hotel at Sixth Avenue and L Street and the Marriott Gaslamp, which opened 306 rooms at Sixth and K.
These developments, and smaller ones such as the 280-room Hilton/Bridgeworks at Fourth Avenue and K Street and the 235-room W Hotel at State and B, brought with them thousands of square feet of new office, retail, dining and entertainment space.
The 'Big Monster' Looms
Still to come is the long-anticipated Hilton Convention Center Hotel, a $200-million project so vast in scope that it's referred to as "the big monster on the waterfront" by competitors and is viewed by city officials as the lynchpin in their plans to cement San Diego's reputation as a tourist mecca.
Targeted for the former Campbell Shipyard site in downtown San Diego's East Village, the 1,200-room, 1.65-million-sq.-ft. Hilton will feature a 32-story, 385-ft.-high hotel tower; 14,000-sq.-ft. restaurant; 5,360 sq. ft. of retail space; 106,000 sq. ft. of meeting space; 23,082-sq.-ft. health club; water taxi dock for hotel guests; 2,000-space parking lot; and 4.3-acre public park and plaza along the water.
Kathy Shepard, vice president of corporate communications for Hilton Hotels, said a general contractor for the project has yet to be chosen. The 12.82-acre site is owned by the Port of San Diego, which optioned it for development to the Hilton San Diego Convention Center LLC in 1992. Once completed, the project is expected to generate more than $15 million in tax revenue annually for the city and about $6 million annually in hotel and parking structure revenue for the port.
A key obstacle in the city's goal of a dynamic convention center hotel near PETCO Park has been financing. Construction of the waterfront project was supposed to begin in September or October, but was delayed when the Hilton San Diego Convention Center LLC announced it had yet to secure enough equity and debt financing to complete the project.
The Port of San Diego's governing board recently agreed to a second option extension with the developer, giving it until February to get its financial ducks in a row.
Shepard said the Hilton LLC was "in the process of finalizing financing for the project, as well as fine-tuning anticipated construction costs." Officials with the Port of San Diego, which is supplying $46.5 million in rent credits to Hilton to develop the hotel, believe the project's delay will be short-lived.
"We're confident they'll come through with the financing," said Irene McCormack, director of communications for the Port of San Diego. "We're hoping construction will begin within the next several months and be completed within 30 months."
Rock On
Work has already begun on a 412-room Hard Rock Hotel several blocks from the convention center. Located in the Gaslamp District on a block bounded by L and K streets and Fifth and Sixth avenues, the $100 million project will include two 12-story buildings; 25,000 sq. ft of street-level retail space; 9,000 sq. ft of meeting space; sky bar and VIP lounge; 9,000-sq.-ft. grand ballroom; and 280-space underground parking garage.
The project footprint envelopes San Diego's historic National City Otay Railroad Depot, which will be restored and used as the hotel's lobby bar. The hotel should be completed by spring 2007.
Developer 5th Rock LLC has hired Turner Construction Co. as the project's construction manager/general contractor. Ron Rudolph, vice president and operations manager for Turner's San Diego office, said the first floor is going to be retail frontage on Fifth Avenue, the heart of the Gaslamp Quarter.
Orange County-based Tarsadia Hotels will manage the facility. San Diego-headquartered Carrier Johnson is the primary architect; Graham Downes Architecture Inc., also of San Diego, is designing the interior.
The Spin on Spinnaker
Fifth Avenue Landing LLC of San Diego plans to build a 23-story, 250-room edifice--the Spinnaker Hotel--just west of the convention center, near Embarcadero Marina Park South in the East Village.
The proposed 250,000-sq.-ft., five-star boutique hotel would feature a ferry/water taxi terminal and a pedestrian bridge connecting it with the convention center. A general contractor has yet to be selected for the project.
Construction is expected to start in late 2006 and take about two years to complete.
C.W. Kim, the Spinnaker's San Diego-based design architect of record, said the hotel's impressive sail-shaped design came about through a trial-and-error process and several proposals.
"The developer was really looking for some excitement," Kim said. "It's a very unique location, surrounded by all this beautiful water."
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Construction recently began on the Residence Inn by Marriott, a 185-room, 12-story hotel on Fifth Avenue between J and K streets. The project includes 7,000 sq. ft. of retail space and underground parking for 205 vehicles.
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More from Marriott
The Gaslamp District will soon be home to two new Marriott International operations: the 344-room Marriott Renaissance Hotel on J Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues; and the 185-room Residence Inn by Marriott, a block away on Fifth Avenue between J and K streets.
Demolition has already begun to make room for the 12-story Renaissance, which will include a 6,400-sq.-ft. ballroom, 3,900 sq. ft. of meeting space, 7,000 sq. ft. of retail space and underground parking for 205 vehicles.
Joseph Wong Design Associates of San Diego has been hired as the Renaissance architect. According to developer 5th and J LLC, the four-star facility should be completed by the third quarter of 2007.
Construction is expected to start at the end of the year on the Residence Inn, an extended-stay facility that will be built around the 105-year-old Brunswig Drug Co. building.
Designed by Awbrey Cook McGill Associates of San Diego, the 151,845-sq.-ft. hotel will feature 7,000 sq. ft. of street-level retail space and a three-level, 148-stall subterranean parking garage.
La Jolla-based Franklin Croft Hospitality LLC is the developer.
No general contractor has been chosen for either Marriott project.
Suite music
The Diegan, a 21-story, 185-room boutique hotel inside the historic Jessop Building on Fifth Avenue between Broadway and C Street in the Gaslamp District is expected to open its doors in spring 2007.
The $100 million, 200,000-sq.-ft inn will include a sky bar, pool bar and 4.5-star restaurant. It also will be atop the new House of Blues, which opened in May.
One of the biggest tasks in designing the Diegan was preserving the Jessop Building's celebrated façade while working within a small footprint, said Anne Marie Kuban, a project manager with San Francisco-based architect of record TannerHecht.
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One of the biggest tasks in designing the 200,000-sq.-ft Diegan was preserving the Jessop Building's celebrated façade while working within a small footprint.
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"It was very tight, with a 100- by 100-ft. floor plate and street frontage on one side only," Kuban said. "Fortunately, we were able to use the building next door, the Music Village, for some of the larger hotel functions, including the pools and outdoor area."
Kuban said the Diegan will become San Diego's first full-fledged condominium hotel. Rooms are being sold to individual investors for use as part of the larger hotel operation.
"[The hotel condominium concept] is unique for California, but it's been going on in other parts of the country for a few years now," said Jim Trammel, a project manager with Diegan owners Fifth Avenue Partners, based in Newport Beach. "We currently have reservation deposits on two-thirds of the hotel."
Kuban said Fifth Avenue Partners has narrowed its choice for a general contractor to two firms: Highland Partnership of Chula Vista and PCL of Carlsbad.
Still very much in the conceptual stages is Isis Hotel's proposed 450-room Intercontinental Hotel, targeted for the north side of G Street between Second and Third avenues in Horton Plaza.
Isis Hotel representatives did not return calls for comment, and San Diego redevelopment officials said they know little about the project other than the fact it's been proposed.
Meanwhile, the tourism industry is now the fastest-growing area of San Diego's economy, employing more than 120,000 people and generating some $120 million in taxes for the city.
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