Room Check: GM Leaves, Project Pauses, Elevator Traps Owners
OC INSIDER by Rick Reiff
More doings in the hotel industry: Seamus McManus, who helped launch the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort, has resigned as GM to “to pursue other avenues,” no immediate replacement. The Landmark Cos. in Newport Beach has pushed back the target opening date of the Marriott Suites project in Garden Grove from early January to sometime in March. And the gala opening of the Doubletree Hotel Santa Ana/Orange County Airport had a glitch,Rick Weiner and several of the other investors got stuck in an elevator for 90 minutes. For an overview of the local hospitality landscape, including some optimistic signs amid the gloom, see Sandi Cain’s special report on page 16 Another loss for the hotel biz: Patrick Chao has re-tired as catering boss after more than 26 years and an estimated 1.5 million meals served at the Anaheim Marriott. But Patrick hasn’t left the food business entirely,that’s impossible when you’re married to Fifi Chao At least one guy is charged up about the American Basketball Association. “We are the terror of the ABA,” co-owner George Argyros Jr. chortled after the Orange County Surf returned from a road trip with a league-leading 5-1 record Hold on to your horseradish: Fred Glusman hasn’t bought the Ritz yet. In October the Insider revealed plans by Hans and Charlene Prager to sell their landmark Newport Beach eatery to the Las Vegas restaurateur. But Glusman recently said he still didn’t have a signed lease or a liquor license and there was a 10% chance the deal would fail. (Other observers put the percentage higher.) “Nothing has gone through so far,” Charlene Prager told Fifi Chao last week A Jan. 15 Wall Street Journal op-ed by OC Congressman Chris Cox debunked partisan bickering over the Bush administration’s request to raise the federal debt ceiling Bonita Canyon Drive is no longer a remote, lightly traveled shortcut in and out of Irvine. Besides more traffic from new subdivisions, the road is now clogged with trucks and service vehicles as the exclusive Shady Canyon development takes shape. The private golf club has opened to its first 55 (of an expected 400) members. Early reviews of the scenic course suggest that Pelican Hill South is now only Tom Fazio’s second-best layout in OC Three more rescues by EE RR from the 2600 Michelson fire-escape vortex: Jeremy Cooley, who was looking for a shortcut on his first day with Greenlight Financial Services; Nitza Christen Berry, who visited the building to get a job application; and Todd Garrett of The Seidler Cos., who was getting 15 floors of exercise … What took so long? Canadian-published Divorce Magazine has come to Orange County.
