Costa Mesa hotel developer Ayres Group has broken ground on a 140-suite property in Laguna Woods and last week began grading for another 140-suite hotel on the 2-acre former site of LA Fitness at the 57 Freeway and Katella Ave. in Anaheim.
The Laguna Woods property sits on 2.5 acres near El Toro Road and Moulton Parkway on land the company acquired from Polygon Development.
“The pad is built,” said Bruce Ayres, president of Ayres Group. Ayres said the company will begin work on the foundation on April 1.
The all-suite hotel will include meeting space, but Ayres said the company will be going after the Leisure World and Aliso Viejo business to fill its rooms.
In Anaheim, however, Ayres will cater to the corporate and tourist markets.
That property is near the site of the proposed $100 million-plus Gotcha Glacier that city officials hope will spur further development of its long-hoped-for Sportstown complex linking Edison International Field and the Pond.
Ayres Group also is nearing completion of its 15th hotel, in Mission Viejo on 2.3 acres of a 4-acre parcel near the intersection of the Foothill (241) Toll Road and Los Alisos Boulevard that the Ayres Group purchased from Shea Homes and the Mission Viejo Co. The hotel, which will open April 15, has 119 studio suites, 1,200 square feet of meeting space, a pool and Jacuzzi, a board room and an exercise room. It also will have limited food service, offering cooked-to-order breakfasts and light dinners. All the suites contain microwave ovens.
Hotels in the 100- to 200-room range averaged a 63% occupancy and an $80 average room rate county-wide last year, according to Los Angeles-based PKF Consulting. n
