CARLSBAD: Developer proposes 'boutique' hotel

$40 million project would go in Carlsbad's downtown beach area

By BARBARA HENRY - Staff Writer | Monday, March 31, 2008 11:51 AM PDT ∞

CARLSBAD ---- Next door to a popular surf shop and few footsteps from the beach, a developer is proposing to put a hotel, restaurant and time-share units where 20 vacation rentals now stand.

"We think there is demand for a great ocean-front hotel in North County," said Carson Mehl, who is handling the project for the Lumiere Hotel Group. "We think we will be one of the few true beach hotels in Carlsbad and our location within downtown is ideal for walkers, which is terrific from a guest experience standpoint."

Lumiere Hotel Group specializes in what are termed "boutique" hotels --- small, luxurious properties in resort areas. The company will open a hotel in Telluride, Colo., this summer, Mehl said Monday. The Carlsbad property, which would go on a half-acre lot on Ocean Street, would be the company's first in San Diego County, he added.

If approved, construction on the $40 million project is anticipated to begin in early 2009 and is forecast to open some 18 months later. The developer's plans now are working their way through the city review process.

"They meet all the development standards," city assistant planner Austin Silva said last week.

City staff members expect to send the plans to the Design Review Board later this spring, Silva said. Later, the City Council will review the project in its role as the city's Housing and Redevelopment Commission.

Because the project is in the city's redevelopment zone, the city's Housing and Redevelopment Commission is handling the plan review rather than the Planning Commission, Silva said.

The developer's plans currently call for a 45-foot-tall building with a 2,815-square-foot restaurant, as well as 39 hotel rooms, 10 "market-rate" condominiums and two low-income units.

"Most rooms will have large patios and window walls that fold away, so you can enjoy the weather along with the view," Mehl said.

The new building, which would have two levels of underground parking, would replace The Seabreeze and Beachwalk buildings, which together have 20 short-term vacation rental units, he said.

The property's closest neighbors are the Offshore Surf Shop, the Harbor Fish restaurant and a city parking lot that's next to the northern end of Carlsbad State Beach.

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