55.7 F
San Diego
Tuesday, Mar 19, 2024
-Advertisement-

Family Joins in to Celebrate Hotel’s Progress

The topping-off party celebrating completion of the exterior of the Homewood Suites by Hilton San Diego/Del Mar was a family affair.

“Everybody in my family, my parents, my in-laws, my brother, my uncle and cousins, were investors,” said Bob Rauch, a general partner with San Diego real estate investor Joe Simone in the deal. “And it’s same way with Joe.”

Rauch, a hotel consultant and director of San Diego State University’s Hospitality and Tourism Research Center, will also be the hotel’s general manager.

The four-story, 91,000-square-foot building with 120 extended-stay suites broke ground in April 2004, and a May 1 opening is planned. But the project took longer to gain financing than he originally anticipated.

Rauch said he bought the four-acre tract for $4 million on Vista Sorrento Parkway in the Torrey Hills section of Carmel Valley with proceeds from the 2000 sale of the 52-room Ocean Inn he’d owned for more than three years in Leucadia.

But hotel loans were scarce in a weakened economy that followed the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

“Our hotel was originally set to start construction on Sept. 12, 2001,” Rauch said. “But we had to get a new lender, and we had to add partners because the amount of capital available pre-9/11 was a lot higher as a debt percentage, so we had to raise more capital.

“And we also saw a significant cost increase in lumber and steel and concrete,” he added.

Rauch said the $17 million tab for construction was about $1 million more than it would have been in 2001.

Rates for the studio-, one- and two-bedroom suites will range in price from $149 to $299 nightly. Each has a full kitchen with a dishwasher, refrigerator, stove, oven and sink, and are supplied with cooking utensils. The hotel’s meeting space includes a 1,400-square-foot ballroom, a 1,500-square-foot lodge and another 400-square-foot “boardroom.”

Rauch said he and Simone plan to break ground this summer on an adjacent 80-room Hilton Garden Inn. But the Hilton/San Diego/Del Mar is likely to be the only new hotel to open outside of Downtown this year, he added.

– – –


Raising Money:

In response to the tsunami that struck South and Southeast Asia on Dec. 26, Loews Coronado Bay Resort and its employees have raised $20,000 in relief funds. The contribution stemmed from a plea by the New York-based corporation’s chairman, Jonathan Tisch, who pledged the Loews Foundation would match any contribution made.

According to an announcement of the donation, the 500 staff members at Loews Coronado voted to forfeit $9,000 that would have been used for an annual employee gala to fund the assistance effort. The resort’s management team gave an additional $1,000, for a total of $10,000, which was doubled by the foundation’s match.

– – –


Keeping The Book Straight:

The San Diego County Regional Airport Authority was awarded a certificate of achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada for its 2004 annual financial report.

The certificate is the highest form of recognition in the area of government accounting and financial reporting. The annual report, judged by an impartial panel, demonstrated a “spirit of full disclosure,” stated a press release from the airport agency.

“This award affirms the authority’s mission to be an open and transparent public agency,” said Thella Bowens, its president and chief executive officer.

A representative from the Government Finance Officers Association will be on hand to present a plaque to Vernon Evans, the agency’s vice president-treasurer and chief financial officer, and Cheryl Coccaro, its director of accounting, during an Airport Authority board meeting Feb. 7.


Send tourism and hospitality information to Connie Lewis via fax at (858) 571-3628 or by e-mail to: clewis@sdbj.com. She may also be reached by phone at (858) 277-6359.

-Advertisement-

Featured Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-

Related Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-