A few new hotels are in the works in Orange County despite the recession.
The Shorebreak Hotel opens at The Strand in Huntington Beach this month.
The 157-room hotel is just half a block from the beach and includes the Zimzala Restaurant that will feature a Mediterranean menu.
The surf theme is evident throughout the hotel. There are surfboard lockers for regular guests, a kelp wall inside the entryway, a central courtyard with three fire pits and native plants, and ocean views from many of the rooms and suites.
The Joie de Vivre Hospitality Inc.-operated hotel is catering both to leisure guests and meeting planners with 8,000 square feet of meeting space.
Director of Sales and Marketing Donald Chock said the hotel would provide jobs for about 150 people when fully staffed.
A SpringHill Suites by Marriott broke ground in Irvine in March. Developers OTO Development LLC of Spartanburg, S.C., and Palmetto Hospitality of Irvine LLC plan to open the 132-room business hotel next spring.
Features include a business library, boardroom-style meeting space, an outdoor patio with a fire pit, an outdoor putting green, a fitness room, an indoor pool and Zen garden. Free wireless Internet will be offered throughout the hotel, including in the guest rooms.
The hotel, at the corner of Fitch Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard, is aiming to achieve Irvine Green Building status.
In North County, the corner of Katella Avenue and Harbor Boulevard will house a 252-room hotel. The luxury boutique hotel will be developed by Newport Beach-based Lake Development Group and operated by Newport Beach-based Broughton Hospitality Group Inc. It will be the first boutique hotel in Anaheim built from the ground up.
The hotel will have leased retail on the site, 7,500 square feet of flexible meeting space, a partly enclosed rooftop sky lounge of up to 16,000 square feet, a spa, 20 suites and 15 two-level loft suites. All hotel units are designed as guest rooms.
“We’ll break ground early next year and expect to open by the end of 2011,” said Broughton Business Development Manager Stephen Medel.
