More Hotel Space for ASR Visitors
Organizers of the Action Sports Retailer Trade Expo are looking forward to having more lodging space for the approximately 20,000 visitors it receives twice a year.
The long-delayed Hilton San Diego Convention Center Hotel recently closed on $348 million in financing and officially broke ground on Jan. 27. The 30-story, 1,190-room hotel will fill a void in lodging space for the San Diego market. ASR organizers said they often run out of hotel space before each ASR market, so the additional space is expected to relieve a lot of pressure to accommodate visitors.
Atlanta-based Portman Holdings and Greeley, Colo.–based Phelps Development in conjunction with Hilton and the Port of San Diego are developing the hotel, which will be built next to the convention center at Harbor and 8th streets.
Plans call for 106,000 square feet of meeting space, 5,400 square feet of retail space, a 23,000- square-foot health club, a 14,000-square-foot restaurant, and a water taxi dock to shuttle guests between the hotel and local attractions.
The hotel is expected to open in the summer of 2008. Hilton officials estimate the project will cost $335 million. The hotel will compete with a new Hard Rock Hotel under development in the Gaslamp Quarter across the street from the convention center.
—Robert McAllister
