Newport Beach-based hotel investment and management firm T2 Development has taken over a dual-hotel project in the works at the former Fat City site in Downtown San Diego.
A spokeswoman for the original developers—Carlsbad-based GLJ Partners and San Diego architect and developer Jonathan Segal—said T2 Development will assume primary control and responsibility for the Fat City project.
T2 purchased the 1.27-acre site, a few blocks from the San Diego harbor, in partnership with GLJ through an entity called FC Acquisitions Co. LLC, according to brokerage Cushman & Wakefield, which represented the seller. GLJ and Segal had owned the site through Frank Fat Properties LP.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
GLJ will maintain a “minor consulting role,” and Segal will have no further involvement in the project, a spokesperson said.
FC Acquisitions is expected to proceed with development of the 61,840-square-foot lot, where a 239,100-square-foot hotel building housing two brands is planned. City planners have approved the six-story project, which includes a total of 364 hotel rooms, 2,500 square feet of retail and restaurant space, spas, meeting rooms and related amenities.
Groundbreaking
Developers have said the project is expected to break ground in January.
T2 Development is led by Mike Patel, co-founder of Tarsadia Hotels Inc., and Mont Williamson. The company owns the Hard Rock Hotel San Diego, and it has three other hotel projects in development in the city according to its website. It also counts Parker Palm Springs, L’Auberge de Sedona in Arizona, and the Milliken Creek Inn & Spa in Napa in its portfolio.
T2 Development, Evolution Hospitality LLC and Tarsadia Investments were created last year by the restructuring of Newport Beach-based Tarsadia Hotels, which was one of the largest privately owned hotel operators and developers in the U.S. Both entities are involved in a hotel that planned as part of a development by Santa Ana-based Nexus Cos. near Long Beach Airport.
Nexus announced a groundbreaking for a four-story, 159-room Courtyard by Marriott hotel next to the airport this year. The project is going up on a 4.5-acre site at Douglas Park near Lakewood Boulevard and Carson Street, a little more than a mile from the San Diego (I-405) Freeway.
Evolution Hospitality is an equity partner in the development in Long Beach and plans to manage the hotel upon completion, expected early next year. T2 Development also provided equity for the project. n
Hirsh is a reporter for the San Diego Business Journal, a sister publication of the Orange County Business Journal
