^^^ Unbelievable a "Homewood Suites on the Bay" great... I find it astounding that a high end brand like Intercontinental, Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons, St. Regis or Mandarin Oriental would not be jumping at the chance to build right on downtown San Diego's waterfront.

The entire metro area has none of these brands (4 Seasons in Carlsbad is now a Park Hyatt - still 5 star). Can any of you guys explain why a large coastal US metro area doesn't have any of these hotel brands. I mean this is a luxury market with tons of rich people in this county.

Is there an updated render?

Can't view the article.

Because we aren't that kind of a city. I mean come on, this is a city where a Marriott, a Hyatt, a Hilton and a Holiday Inn already adore our bay front crown (a crown this city bought from party city I might add).

San Diego isn't a luxury city. Our best mall is a B mall by LA standards. Our main attractions are a zoo, an over-sized aquarium, and a lego day care center. We have beaches, yes, and so what?

The gaslamp is cute, but not in anyway spectacular when compared to the streets of Hong Kong, London or New York where property values are so high, that visiting alone can attract the money that any of the hotels you listed above would salivate over.

San Diego is a family-oriented, middle-class vacation destination. We get zonies, weekend trip LAers, Californians, and the occasional Brit who accidentally got on the wrong plane.

Don't get me wrong, we have some class, I'm just saying, a Homewood Suites should come as no surprise. We might fare better in the future, but for now, this navy town will keep its middle image.

Do you think it is also because we do not have a large corporate presence? For example look as Seattle which is our best comparison (West Coast City with similar Metro pop.) they have a much larger corporate base and get more high end business travel because of Boeing and all of the tech companies based there.

We are sort of a luxury "resort style city" look at North County with its huge swath of million dollar homes from Olivenhain through RSF/Fairbanks/Santa Luz/ etc. that is a big area with all 1.5 million dollar homes and up. So there is money here but not really in the same way as even Seattle etc.

SD has luxury hotels but only in the suburbs which is kind of unique.

I'm surprised that San Diego doesn't have any of the hotel brands you mentioned yet Miami has all of them including 3 Ritz Carltons. All of these are in Miami Dade county too which has a smaller population than San Diego county itself.

Well Miami is a tough comparison with San Diego Bob. You have tons of Latin American banks there plus with it being the de facto "Capital of Latin America" you get a lot more big players coming to visit. Tons of rich people from NY, Boston, and Philly fly down for the weekend or longer Dec. thru March so I can see why it has more luxury. Plus Miami doesn't have a 16 million metro area sitting 120 miles north of it :cool:

Remember Orange County with its 3 million people and St. Regis, Ritz Carlton and other non corporate luxury hotels is quite close. San Diego does have a ton of "pretty nice" hotels just not a lot of the ultra lux uber hotels that Miami is blessed with.

New hotels to rise on Lane Field
 

http://media.utsandiego.com/img/phot...053cbc530c46a8

Plans to redevelop Lane Field, the former home of the Pacific Coast League Padres, into a mid-scale 400-room hotel tower and public park, were given the go-ahead Tuesday by San Diego Port Commissioners.

The board granted an option to a development team to build a 14-story structure housing two different hotels — a 250-room Homewood Suites and a 150-room Hilton Garden Inn. The $110 million project, which also calls for a nearly two-acre park and plaza along Harbor Drive, is a downscale version of what was once envisioned as a luxury InterContinental Hotel tower.

The economic downturn, which made financing impossible to obtain, coupled with the added park requirement, forced the developers to rethink the project design, said Jerry Trammer, project executive for Lane Field. Still planned, however, is a second phase that calls for a 400-room InterContinental on the southern portion of the site, which Trammer hopes could be financed once the economy fully rebounds.

The developers of the hotel project include San Diego-based Lankford & Associates, Hardage Suite Hotels and C.W. Clark.

The San Diego Unified Port District, which wouldn’t start getting rent payments until at least 2017, could expect annual revenues of $2 million to $3.9 million during the later years of the agreement. The project, which still requires approval from the California Coastal Commission, could be completed by late 2014, Trammer said.

The developers would also be responsible for creating a new park that would include landscaped areas, a food pavilion, public restrooms and a special homage to the Padres’ former minor league team that used Lane Field between 1936 and 1957.

“One idea is to celebrate the original baseball stadium by having a replica of home plate in the same location where it once was and to also replicate the base pads and the pitcher’s mound,” said Trammer. “And the foul line would shown with in-ground lighting.”

The next step, said Trammer, is to design the hotel and park site, with a goal of starting construction in early 2013.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/...se-lane-field/

I think you are spot on. The biggest reason why San Diego isn't a "luxury" city is because of its tiny corporate presence. I guarantee that if you added a few Fortune 100 companies (along with all the companies, firms, agencies that support them), SD would become a whole lot more luxurious, and you would start to see some of these ritzier brands show up.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/...vice-to-japan/

San Diego gets nonstop service to Japan

This could boost our attraction, and maybe translate to a better corporate presence.

Does San Diego still have non-stop British Airways service to London? Previously, Portland was the smallest US city with non-stop service to both Asia and Europe. It might be San Diego now, when this route starts.

I don't understand, San Diego is larger than Portland. Did you mean San Diego is the largest metro area without a non stop flight to both Asia and Europe?

This is huge for SD! Finally a daily Asia flight. Now we need to get a daily to Southern Asia like Hong Kong/Manila/Singapore and then we are really in business.

Does anyone know if that new Mexico City flight is daily?

Correct-- I didn't know the relative size of Portland vs. San Diego. Regardless, good news for SAN.

A new airport with daily/weekly flights to everywhere in the world would help a lot...

Those flights to Tokyo/London are a big help though since at least those airports are connected to the rest of the world.

Portland's metro is about 800,000 people smaller than San Diego's.


PDX has direct flights to Amsterdam (Delta) and Tokyo (also Delta).





This is really good news for San Diego, but a little random to be honest.

As an outsider, I think San Deigo wasted its potential. Its location and climate are ideal. It should be a far greater international draw, but it developed itself in the wrong way.

First, move your airport outside of your city center.
Create a proper transit system.
Develop a proper waterfront with a walkway along it away from major roads. Also, add retail
Create a major tourist attraction (bibao effect) - world class design for a musuem or cultural venue.
Develop a vibrant downtown with retail - emphasize mexican american style buildings/styles
Focus more on building a unique san diego architecture and move away from corporate glass towers with no personality.

Move military presence/navy ships and any bases far away from city center. Get rid of the naval base and noisy planes.
Reduce highway clutter.
Turn Coronado or whatever beach area into a miami beach style area high density low rise streets, restaurants, w/ more ritzy resorts and boutique hotels on ocean.

San Diego went the wrong way and does not develop its strong points -- i.e, beaches, weather, compactness. It should be a major resort city with international prestige like Miami. It should develop tourism fully despite lacking a large corporate presence. It should drop the family image and start to develop a more sophisticated one.

Yeah right. :rolleyes: The city has no control over that. San Diego has one of the largest naval presences in the country. Good luck telling the DoD that you want the bases gone or moved.

Ok, well... I'm not sure you can do much to fulfill the potential of the city to the extent that you would like.
Military bases don't mix well with internaitonal tourism IMO.

Regarding the non-stop Tokyo -SD service, I have an academic article on my desk at work about the value of new international service at Narita. Suffice to say, although there are significant differences between San Diego and Tokyo, I can email it to anyone who is interested.

All of those things would be really nice, and most of us on this board already know about those things. It's a shame none of it will ever happen. :rolleyes:

You sound like a child moving pieces on a Monopoly board. The realities of cities are buillt over centuries-you probably didnt know tht San Diego is over 500 years in the making. Your comments sound like you have never even been here, except maybe with your parents at Sea World. I had a good laugh at your idea of turning our city into a Mexican theme park or a copy of Miami. Miami is a hole and not something to emulate and TJ is fine for TJ.