The Disneyland Resort area and the coast drew most of the investment in hotels that opened or got under way this year.
Leading the pack were Great Wolf Lodge in Garden Grove and Paséa Hotel & Spa in Huntington Beach—which together totaled 853 rooms and suites.
Look for the growth to continue.
Hoteliers have one eye on the potential for overcapacity, but a market with Disneyland, the beaches, and Anaheim Convention Center, among other draws—will likely keep pulling projects after other areas go quiet on development.
Seven thousand hotel rooms are in the pipeline in Anaheim, Huntington Beach, Irvine and Garden Grove alone. Tourism groups are fine-tuning their marketing to keep visitors coming. Cities have granted tax incentives or other enticements for developers. Air travel at John Wayne Airport remains strong.
A wild card: the tourist mix. Destination marketing tweaks, airlines jockeying at JWA, and financial or economic concerns in other countries and under a new U.S. presidential administration could alter visitor flows.
Company to Watch
PACIFIC HOSPITALITY GROUP
The Irvine-based owner and manager of hospitality properties has nailed down 90% of the commitments for its $125 million PHG Hotel Fund I LLC—which debuted in June by buying the AC hotel in Tempe, Ariz.
It’s also committed to buy the AC Hotel Irvine, which opens in April. PHG will run both properties.
The fund could next nab an AC hotel in Texas scheduled for a 2018 opening—but no deal is signed yet.
Also set to open in 2018 is a 145-room expansion of its 323-room Meritage Resort & Spa in Napa, and PHG is working on entitlements this year for a dual-brand AC hotel/Courtyard by Marriott next-door to add another 250 rooms to the grounds in 2019.
The company will likely spend much of the next year fine-tuning operations at Paséa Hotel & Spa in Huntington Beach, which opened in May, and Newport Beach Country Club, which reopened in July after a big renovation.
The Newport Beach property is co-managed by PHG but not in its ownership portfolio. It’s held by a group led by local investor Dick Pickup and co-run by PHG and Eagle Four Partners in Irvine.
Person to Watch
JAY BURRESS
He heads Visit Anaheim, destination marketer for Anaheim and Garden Grove, and his work can touch other cities—as when the group took ownership of an annual college basketball tourney that was held this year in Orange.
He’s a sports fan with big-event experience—he was in charge of a similar group in Arlington, Texas, when the city hosted a Super Bowl, NBA All-Star weekend, and some World Series games.
He wants to apply that experience to a new venture: events built around high school, college, and amateur sports. Badminton, wrestling and water polo groups are bringing business to OC next year. Expect more such signings.
Visit Anaheim’s Synchronicities deal with destination marketers in Baltimore and San Antonio has borne early fruit: In its first two years, it’s signed 20 groups for events on the three-year rotation among the cities. Burress plans a 2017 expansion of the effort.
Expansion also is the word for the city-owned Anaheim Convention Center. Burress’ sales staff will have more to promote when the facility opens a 200,000-square-foot addition, putting it around the 1 million mark for meeting and exhibit space.
