Design unveiled for Chula Vista bayfront project
By Tanya Mannes
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
5:43 p.m. March 15, 2007
CHULA VISTA – In a plan that would transform Chula Vista's vacant bayfront, Gaylord Entertainment today unveiled its design for the massive, high-concept hotel and convention center the company hopes to build.
The complex includes a resort hotel of 1,500 to 2,000 rooms – which would be the largest in San Diego County – 400,000 square feet of meeting space, shops, restaurants and entertainment venues.
The design concept emphasizes the outdoors with a series of open courtyards and lots of glass windows – glazed to prevent bird strikes – to feature the natural beauty of the bay. The complex would include one 300-foot tower that the company said would have a “slender profile” when seen from Chula Vista's downtown.
At two meetings held back to back in Chula Vista City Hall on Thursday, the company presented artists' renderings to the Citizens Advisory Committee for the Chula Vista Bayfront Master Plan. Bennett Westbrook, the company's vice president for development, told the group the concept was developed by an architectural team from TVS, a company in Atlanta.
Gaylord, a Nashville, Tenn.-based company, owns a chain of massive “everything under one roof” hotel/convention centers that cater to associations and corporations.
The company's flagship property is the Opryland Hotel in Nashville. Since 2002, Gaylord has built similar projects near Orlando and Dallas, and has a project under construction in the Washington, D.C., area. The Chula Vista property would be the company's first West Coast venture.
City officials believe Chula Vista's 550-acre bayfront has great potential for commercial development.
For years, much of the land was taken up by an aerospace factory and the South Bay Power Plant. The factory buildings have been relocated farther from the water, and city officials are working to get the 47-year-old power plant demolished by 2010. The San Diego Unified Port District voted Tuesday to support the city by rejecting a plan to build another power plant on the Chula Vista bayfront.
Gaylord's investment in Chula Vista is expected to jump-start a Bayfront Master Plan that was drafted cooperatively by the port and the city. The plan, which was completed in 2005, includes Gaylord's 32-acre complex as well as 200 acres of public parks, two other hotels, restaurants, shops and condominiums.
Gaylord would invest more than $716 million in the hotel and convention center, with the remainder coming from Chula Vista and the port. In July 2006, Gaylord, the city and the port signed a letter of intent that outlines in general terms the company's plan.
As an incentive, the city and port agreed to provide tax-exempt public financing of $308 million to pay for infrastructure and a portion of the convention center. The letter of intent specifies that the subsidy would come from new revenue generated by the Gaylord development, such as hotel taxes.
The company has been negotiating with the city and the Port District since then, but details of the talks have not been disclosed.
The Gaylord project would create 6,500 construction jobs, according to an economic impact report prepared by HR&A Inc. Once the project is done, the complex is expected to permanently employ more than 2,000 people.