OC gets a W

from today's Orange County Business Journal news brief (1/14/2008)

Makar Lands W Hotel for Huntington Beach Project
By Sandi Cain - 1/14/2008
Orange County Business Journal Staff

"Newport Beach-based developer Makar Properties LLC has landed a W hotel—the first in the county for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.’s boutique chain—for its Pacific City project in Huntington Beach.

The hotel will be the centerpiece of Pacific City, a 30-acre development that will include condominiums, shops and restaurants set to start construction next year." ...

"Plans for the hotel call for 250 rooms and suites and 11,000 square feet of meeting space, according to Makar. The nine-story hotel also is set to have a spa, fitness center, restaurant, cafe and bars. Two outdoor pools are planned.

The hotel is expected to open in 2010. It will be fifth W in California and the 22nd overall for the chic brand.

Makar, which also owns the St. Regis Resort, Monarch Beach, Hilton Anaheim and Wyndham Orange County, plans to include 92 condominiums that buyers would own outright—not timeshares—and have access to hotel services and amenities." ...

"The W is set to join the 157-room boutique Shorebreak Hotel set to open in the first half of 2008 at the Strand project in Huntington Beach, developed by Los Angeles-based CIM Group. That hotel will be run by Joie de Vivre Hospitality of San Francisco, a pioneer in boutique hotels.

Pacific City, billed as a mix of “SoHo hip, South Beach cool and Rodeo Drive luxury,” is set to include shops, restaurants, entertainment venues, offices and homes on Pacific Coast Highway south of the Huntington Beach Pier.

The project is estimated at $750 million.

Huntington Beach approved the project in 2004. It will have 191,100 square feet of retail and office space and 48,900 square feet of restaurant space."

for the complete story see:
http://www.ocbj.com/enews_article.asp?aID=569000202.1090662
.1574625.775993.4924367.628&aID2=121116&lid=45&sid=&cID=Z