Nexus Development Corp. is the latest in a growing list of companies looking to build a hotel in the Anaheim Resort Area.
The Santa Ana-based developer recently filed early-stage plans with Anaheim’s planning department to build a 350-room hotel on a stretch of long-unused land near the intersection of Katella Avenue and the Santa Ana (I-5) freeway.
The five-story property would be a limited-service hotel, according to city documents. Its brand has not been determined yet, according to Cory Alder, Nexus president.
Limited-service hotels typically don’t include restaurant or banquet facilities, although initial proposals for the Anaheim development say the project would include 15,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.
The project is described by city officials as being in the conceptual stage; a formal application should be filed with the city in the next two months, Alder said.
The nearly 6-acre property where the hotel is planned shouldn’t need too much ground-work to be ready for development; the only building now used at the largely fenced-off site is a Del Taco restaurant.
The site, at 1721 S. Manchester Ave., previously was home to The Boogie nightclub, a one-time cowboy music-themed venue that was once the largest nightclub in Orange County.
The nightclub was shut down nearly a decade ago and has been largely unused since then, other than as ancillary parking for Disney, whose theme parks are about a mile from the site.
The hotel would be the first in OC for Nexus—a builder of hotels, senior living communities, and condos—since it built a 215-room Homewood Suites in Anaheim last year.
Nexus has also undertaken a pair of hotel projects at the Douglas Park development, a 260-acre business park next to the airport in Long Beach.
Nexus opened a 159-room Courtyard Marriott at Douglas Park in 2013 and plans a 2017 opening for a dual Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites hotel there that will total 241 rooms.
Nexus’ proposal is the latest in a string of hotels planned for the Anaheim Resort Area, the 1,100-acre district that includes Disneyland Resort and Anaheim Convention Center.
The area currently has 78 hotels—a mix of luxury, economy and family-friendly venues—totaling about 14,500 rooms, according to city figures. It holds about 70% of all the hotel rooms in the city.
Another 856 rooms are under construction in four projects, while six hotels totaling 1,000 rooms have opened since mid-2014, according to the latest city data.
Those hotels were the first in the area to be built since the last recession, which put construction on hold due to a lack of financing for developers.
Prospera Push
The Nexus project is one of nine additional hotels that have been proposed for the Resort Area, a handful of which could break ground this year.
Those hotels—including a trio of luxury properties expected to be the only non-Disney hotels in the city that would meet AAA’s four-diamond rating—would add another 3,200 or so rooms.
Along with the Nexus project, the newest entry to the list of proposed hotels is a 178-room Hampton Inn & Suites, which would be developed by Orange-based Prospera Hotels.
Conceptual plans for Prospera’s project were filed with the city last month.
The five-story, limited-service Hampton Inn would replace the Arena Inn & Suites, an older property on the opposite side of Katella Avenue from the Nexus project.
Prospera has one hotel under construction in the area, a 262-room Hyatt House on South Harbor Boulevard.
The company also has two additional Resort Area projects in development, including a 466-room JW Marriott planned next to the Anaheim GardenWalk shopping center. It’s one of the three luxury hotels in the works for the area.
