Boutique Design - January/February 2013 - 18

THE BUZZ

A stretch of 5th
Street in San
Diego’s historic
Gaslamp Quarter.

The region’s
restaurant
offerings include
the Kitchen 1540 at
L’Auberge Del Mar.

THE PULSE

Life’s a real beach in this oceanfront
metro, whose tourism-driven economy
features such regional attractions as Sea
World, the San Diego Zoo and Legoland California Resort (which later this
year will become home to the second
Legoland Hotel in the world—see item
on page 26). Graham Downes, founder
of San Diego-based
Graham Downes Architecture, notes that the
area’s “vibrant economic
climate, picturesque
location and enviable
weather patterns will
always lure new brands
and concepts.”
THE NUMBERS

A major uptick in the
metro area’s hotel development pipeline over
the next three years is forecast by Robert
Rauch, president of R. A. Rauch & Associates, a San Diego-based provider of
management and consulting services to
boutique hotels. Rauch’s research shows
478 rooms will be added to the market
in 2013, followed by 1,000 more in 2014
and 2,000 additional in 2015. “Those
2

boutiquedesign.com JANUARY + FEBRUARY 2013

figures translated into an increase in
added capacity for the market totaling 6
percent, which will be largely absorbed
by anticipated increases in demand of 2
percent per year,” he notes.

view of the Chula Vista development
will be offered at an educational seminar
during the inaugural BDwest interiors
trade fair, April 4-5 at the San Diego
Convention Center.)
THE OBSTACLES/OPPORTUNITIES

THE HOTSPOTS

The region has seen continued strength
in both leisure travel, fueled by a steady
stream of international visitors, and in
corporate travelers visiting its cluster
of communications technology and
biotech/biomedical companies, says
Rauch. That activity has translated into
healthy results for hoteliers in such
submarkets as La Jolla, Del Mar, Mission
Bay/Beaches, Mission Valley and the
Interstate 15 corridor, he notes.
And in the next few years, development activity on the city’s south side is
likely to experience a major uptick, once
work starts on the 556-acre Chula Vista
Bayfront complex. That project involves
transforming a major swath of land on
south San Diego Bay from an underused
industrial waterfront property into a
world-class resort and conference destination. If all goes according to plan,
construction on that mega-development
will get underway in 2016. (An insider’s

Many hotels in downtown San Diego
are reliant on the city’s convention
center for business, and bookings at that
facility have been relatively soft over the
past couple of years, Rauch notes. But
Downes says that there has been a plus
side to that situation for local hoteliers:
“They’ve focused more on alternative
revenue sources, such as their food and
beverage and corporate meeting business. These extra marketing initiatives
and overall honing of their operations
will serve them well in coming years.”
In addition, Downes notes that plans
to expand the convention center by 2016
would help the city attract more largescale meetings and boost business for
nearby hotels, including those in the
historic Gaslamp Quarter. San Diego’s
restaurant sector, meantime, is hypercompetitive right now, Downes says.
“There’s an over-saturation of hipsterattentive dining places opening,” he
explains. “It feels like Brooklyn on steroids.”

COU RTE SY OF JOA NNE D IB ONA , SAN DI EG O.ORG (G ASLAM P QUA RTE R); C OU RT E S Y O F S A N DI E G O . O R G ( K I T C H E N 1 5 4 0 )

CITY SNAPSHOT: SAN DIEGO

http://www.SANDIEGO.ORG http://www.SANDIEGO.ORG http://www.boutiquedesign.com

Boutique Design - January/February 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Boutique Design - January/February 2013