A yearlong renovation has Hotel Irvine ready for its interior close-up—with makeovers of meeting spaces and outdoor amenities scheduled for completion in January.
Newport Beach-based Irvine Company owns the hotel at Jamboree Road near the San Diego (405) Freeway. Its Irvine Company Resort Properties relaunched it this month as a “lifestyle hotel” for business travelers, with new dining and entertainment options for locals.
“It’s as if we’re a new hotel,” said Ralph Grippo, president of the division, which also includes The Resort at Pelican Hill, Island Hotel, Oak Creek Golf Club and several marinas.
The division took back the 536-room property on Jamboree from long-time operator Hyatt Hotels Corp. in 2013, and spent this year renovating the rooms and public spaces.
Grippo said the goal was to mirror “how people live these days.”
The hotel’s food and beverage operations—especially its public retail spaces—were redone with “community and connectivity” in mind. A new restaurant, bar, and “grab-and-go” grocery-type store are visible from the main lobby, open and accessible, with bright lighting and vibrant hues of orange, purple and yellow.
“We want to evoke emotions,” Grippo said.
The restaurant, bar, and market offer individual contemporary takes on traditional hotel amenities—coupling what business travelers expect and what locals might look for in a pleasant night out.
Hotel General Manager J.D. Shafer said each of the three offer free room delivery for guests and free parking for locals.
“We’re not ‘nickel-and-diming’ people,” he said. “This can be the social center of Irvine.”
New Offerings
The three new offerings are:
• Eats Kitchen + Bar is the restaurant, an American classics gastro pub with a menu by Chef Jason Montelibano, formerly of Chapter One in downtown Santa Ana;
• Red Bar, run by David Fayette, a veteran of several local hotspots, including Crow Bar & Kitchen in Newport Beach;
• Marketplace, Hotel Irvine’s “grab-and-go” option, run by Brent Karnes, who the hotel said oversaw the openings of Trader Joe’s stores in Crystal Cove and near University of California-Irvine.
Other local ties include products from Orange County companies, including Backyard Bees honey, Laguna Salt Co. gourmet salts, salsas and jams from Sola, and bottled barbecue sauce from Memphis Café.
The executives said Hotel Irvine held a “casting call” to hire staff for the three offerings, looking beyond the hotel industry. The goal was to foster a spirit of “independent outlets” run “with an entrepreneurial mindset,” Shafer said.
He said staffers were trained in the hotel’s service goals, which include a local focus—being able to speak knowledgeably about the area—and traits that include being “thoughtful,” “engaging” and “fun.”
Rounding out the indoor public spaces is a private room for groups and nine flat-screen televisions in the bar, plus a space for an occasional DJ.
To be sure, the Hotel Irvine is still a hotel.
It serves the business customer, and in addition to the public spaces, every room was renovated. In January, the hotel plans to add a theater room for meetings, with an interactive wall and work stations.
Outside areas will see a 6,000-square-foot permanent pavilion and an 8,000-square-foot lawn for events—Grippo said weddings are an option—as well as an expanded pool area, with wet bar and cabana.
“It’s not just ‘get your points’ and go,” Grippo said. “We’re looking at loyalty, value and differentiation.”
He said the idea is to foster the independent “boutique” feel at a hotel that offers solid business amenities.
The executives declined to discuss costs.
Industry sources put an “average” hotel renovation at up to $20,000 per room, a number that about doubles when public spaces and meeting facilities get makeovers.
That would put an estimate on the Hotel Irvine’s work at around $20 million.
The new look has inspired some cleverness at Hotel Irvine as it puts its new face forward: a new “HI” moniker on lapel pins and elsewhere, and posters in elevators evoking its new food and beverage offerings with the suggestion, “Let’s Be Taste Buds.”
Grippo said that even the exterior—an old-school, concrete look—is part of the transformation: In the evenings, the hotel is bathing outer walls with colored spotlights.
