Newport Beach-based Tarsadia Hotels Inc. has filed plans to build a pair of upscale hotels along Katella Avenue in the heart of Anaheim’s tourism district.
The project, next to Anaheim Convention Center, could start construction as soon as summer, according to city officials.
Early plans filed with Anaheim call for Tarsadia,one of the country’s largest privately owned hotel operators and developers,to put up two hotels with a total of 349 rooms. The project also would include up to 45,000 square feet of shops and restaurants.
The proposed development site currently houses one of Tarsadia’s older hotels in Anaheim, the 66-room Jolly Roger Inn, along with the 190-room Portofino Inn & Suites.
The Jolly Roger would be torn down to make room for the new hotels, according to Sheri Vander Dussen, planning director for Anaheim. The hotel already was slimmed down years ago to make way for the Portofino, which opened in 2000. The Portofino is expected to remain open.
Industry watchers expect Tarsadia to court a more upscale segment of the hotel market with the redevelopment.
The construction would be the biggest splash Tarsadia has made in Anaheim since it bought the 1,033-room Anaheim Marriot,Orange County’s second largest hotel,in 1999 for $75 million.
It’s been a bigger developer elsewhere in Southern California of late. Most notably, it just opened San Diego’s first full condominium hotel with the Hard Rock Hotel San Diego.
The company’s two new Anaheim hotels could be as tall as the nearby Sheraton Park Hotel, which runs about a dozen stories. Height restrictions for development around Disneyland would prohibit the hotels from being any taller than that, according to Vander Dussen.
Plans for redeveloping the area around the Jolly Roger have been discussed since 2000. At the time, a Westin or Sheraton was considered the most likely hotel brand.
One of the major sticking points for the development had been a Chevron station that is also on the grounds. The gas station was closed about a year ago allowing time to clean up the land and clearing up more space for the project.
Tarsadia could find itself facing competition among hotel projects in the area. Irvine-based SunCal Cos’. site that was earmarked for condominiums is expected to be bought for resort-related development, and possibly timeshares.
The City Council last week reversed its decision to allow homes there.
In September, Walt Disney Co. said it planned to expand its Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, adding a wing with more than 200 rooms and 50 timeshares. The expansion would bring the hotel’s rooms to nearly 1,000, making it the third-largest in OC.
Newport Beach-based Makar Properties LLC recently completed a first phase of renovations to the Anaheim Hilton, which it bought earlier this year for an estimated $160 million. At 1,572 rooms, the Hilton is the county’s biggest hotel.
And in October, the 314-room Radisson Maingate in Anaheim was bought by Red Lion Hotels Corp. Spokane, Wash.-based Red Lion plans to spend $10 million on renovations to the property, on Harbor Boulevard across from Disneyland.
There are 24 hotels under development in OC this year, according to Irvine-based Atlas Hospitality Group’s latest development report. That compares to 12 a year ago and 11 in 2005.
