OC Builders Tapped for Del Mar Hotels
By SANDI CAIN
Two Orange County construction companies will have lead roles in a hotel project in Del Mar next year.
R.D. Olson Construction, Irvine, has been named general contractor, and the Irvine office of Howard S. Wright Construction Co. was named construction manager for the project by developer and operator R.A. Rauch & Associates Inc., a San Diego hospitality and consulting firm.
Two hotels,a $16 million, 120-room Ho-mewood Suites by Hilton and a $10 million, 80-room Hilton Garden Inn,will be built on 3.7 acres of land at Ocean Bluff Avenue and Sorrento Parkway. The project also will include 5,000 square feet of retail space. The hotels are expected to open in January 2003.
Olson was one of 10 companies to bid on the contract and was recommended by Hilton Hotels Corp., Robert Rauch said.
“Their references were impeccable,” he said.
Olson ranked No. 12 on the most recent Business Journal list of Orange County’s largest construction companies with $142.5 million in Orange County revenue for the year ended March 31.
“Hospitality is a big part of our business,” company Chief Executive Bob Olson said. “We’re well-known in the hotel business.”
Still, he said, the new contract is his company’s first with Rauch & Associates.
R.D. Olson also is a hotel developer. The company recently completed two hotels in Anaheim,a 264-room, $26 million Holiday Inn and an $11 million, 143-suite Staybridge Suites,which it subsequently sold. Olson also built phase one of the Newport Coast Villas, a Marriott Corp. vacation resort in Newport Beach.
Howard S. Wright Construction opened its Orange County office last year, its first in Southern California. The Seattle-based company was the general contractor for the 55,000-square-foot Irvine BMW facility. Rauch said the Del Mar hotels originally were scheduled to break ground in September, but the events of Sept. 11 delayed the project. He said financing for the project should be finalized in the next 60 days and expressed confidence that construction would begin by March. The plans have been approved by all the local boards and commissions, he said.
Rauch also developed the $50 million, 284-room Del Mar Marriott that is scheduled to open Jan. 14. He sold that property to JMI Realty Inc., the real estate arm of John Moores’ businesses. Moores is the majority owner of the San Diego Padres.
