• San Diego–based ATLAS HOTELS is investing $30 million to upgrade, expand, and transform Shelter Pointe Hotel and Marina into the Resort Kona Kai Spa and Marina by 2008. Planned new facilities include 150 guest rooms, lobby, restaurant, and a waterfront promenade. • GRAND DEL MAR RESORT & SPA, a new luxury hotel situated among the fairways of the Tom Fazio–designed Grand Golf Club in Del Mar, is scheduled for completion in early 2007. The 261-room hotel will offer 20,000 square feet of meeting space, including a 10,000-square-foot ballroom and a spa.
• September 2006 will mark the reopening of downtown’s historic US GRANT HOTELafter a $26 million upgrade of all 273 guest rooms, lobby, meeting rooms, and restaurants. Redecorated and restored to showcase the hotel’s 1910 origins, the property will join Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Luxury Collection.
• TOWN AND COUNTRY RESORT & CONVENTION CENTER in Mission Valley has begun construction of a 41,000- square-foot exhibit hall. When complete in January 2007, total meeting space will measure nearly 230,000 square feet. Additional, concurrent improvements include the renovation of 1,000 guest rooms, public areas, and event space, as well as the opening of a new 14,000-square-foot spa, salon, and fitness center.
• Last September, downtown’s OMNI SAN DIEGO HOTEL unveiled The Gallery, offering 7,000 square feet of meeting space accommodating up to 350 attendees. The addition, which includes a pre-function area displaying the works of California artists, brings total meeting space to more than 27,000 square feet.
• HOTEL DEL CORONADO has completed a $10 million renovation of 318 guest rooms in the Victorian, Ocean Towers, and Cabana buildings. Improvements include new beds, soft goods, artwork, carpet, and remodeled bathrooms featuring limestone tile and marble vanities.
• TOWER23, the first luxury oceanfront hotel to be built in San Diego in over a decade, opened in July 2005 with 44 boutiquestyle ocean-view suites, a restaurant, and an indoor/outdoor bar on the boardwalk. Guest rooms feature flat-screen televisions, wireless Internet service extending to the beach, customized beverage bars, and bathrooms with step-in rain showersand “floating” whirlpool tubs.
• KIMPTON’S HOTEL SOLAMAR opened in April 2005 within walking distance of the Gaslamp Quarter, PETCO Park, and the San Diego Convention Center. The hotel offers 9,000 square feet of function space, a pool deck overlooking the downtown skyline, and 235 guest rooms featuring large desks with ergonomic mesh swivel chairs, flat-screen TVs, and wireless Internet service.
• In December, LOEWS CORONADO BAY RESORT & SPA completed a $6 million renovation of the hotel’s 439 guest rooms. Improvements include oversized work desks, laptop-friendly safes, high-speed Internet access, and marble bathrooms with Japanese- style deep soaking tubs.