This week, I took a detailed look at the finances of Chula Vista’s Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center, which opened a little more than a year ago.
Officials at both the city and the Port of San Diego say the $1.3 billion mega-resort is a game-changing investment that will generate millions in new revenue and spur an economic transformation of Chula Vista’s once-industrial waterfront.
Financially, those promises appear on their way to being fulfilled, but they’re not there yet. And economic headwinds could complicate things.
On other measures, results also appear inconclusive.
While reporting, I had a long conversation with port officials, who pointed out the hotel already is bringing benefits to the South County community.
Among the benefits listed by port spokesperson Brianne Mundy Page:
- 7,000 construction jobs and 1,200 permanent full- and part-time jobs at the hotel.
- Convention center meeting spaces that can be used by the community for high school dances and other events.
- New opportunities for local businesses to serve hotel guests and supply the hotel with food, beverages and services.
- Opportunities for community members to use the hotel’s expansive water play area.
- New and revitalized parkland around the hotel.
- International attention for Chula Vista, spurring new economic development proposals.
“The public financing for the bayfront provides public benefits,” Page said of the Gaylord in an email. “This has always been about playing the long game.”
To assess some of those benefits, I spent time at the Gaylord and talked to Chula Vista residents, hotel guests and the developer of a recently proposed bayfront development project that port officials say is a direct result of the Gaylord’s arrival.
The jobs are real. Tens of thousands of people lined up at a job fair to secure one of the hotel jobs, even though some of the jobs are either part-time or lower-paying entry-level service jobs.
The success of the convention center is harder to assess. On a recent day I visited, there were only two events taking place in the vast 470,000-square-foot facility adjacent to the hotel.
One of the events was a staff retreat for San Diego’s High Tech High School. The other was an expo held by the heavy-duty truck manufacturer International.
The staff retreat occupied a few smaller rooms on the convention center’s top level. The expo included a plenary session in one curtained-off portion of a hotel ballroom plus some breakout sessions in a few meeting rooms upstairs.
Other than those events, the rest of the convention center appeared empty – as did much of the hotel’s multi-story parking garage, which locals say often appears to have few cars.
On a deck above the water play area, I talked to one of the International expo attendees, a man named Logan Jay, who said he was there from the Canadian province of Nova Scotia on behalf of a network of truck dealers on the east coast of Canada.
Jay, his wife and his daughter were taking some family selfies before Jay headed into the expo.
Asked how he was enjoying his stay, Jay gave the hotel a thumbs up.
“The facilities are amazing,” he said. “Beautiful rooms.”
Jay said he and his family had arrived a few days early to visit the San Diego area. So far, the family had gone on a hike near the San Elijo Lagoon and toured Coronado, Pacific Beach and La Jolla.
Did they plan to visit sites in Chula Vista?
No, said Jay. “It’s an expensive resort. Going out to see other [attractions] doesn’t make sense,” he said.
Jay said even in Canada he has heard about the Tijuana River sewage crisis, which has closed beaches from Imperial Beach to Coronado.
“There’s lots of pollution in San Diego’s beaches,” he said. “We’ll stick with the pools.”
Throughout the time I reported on the Gaylord, I tried in vain to find someone in Chula Vista who has secured one of the mythical $12.50 day passes to the Gaylord’s water play area.
I heard plenty of frustrated stories. The near-impossibility of getting one of the passes, which must be reserved online and which sell out months in advance, has become a subject of local lore.
I also talked to Gerald Divaris, chairman of Divaris Real Estate, the Virgina-based development company that last year proposed what is known as the Pangaea Project, an ambitious proposal to transform a vacant swath of the Chula Vista bayfront into a sports, entertainment and retail complex anchored by a tennis center.
Port officials say the Pangaea proposal, which they did not solicit, is proof the Gaylord is spurring new development.
Divaris said it will be at least two years before his company is ready to present a final proposal to the port’s Board of Port Commissioners.
“It’s very early stage,” he said. “We have a dream as to what we’d like it to be and we’re looking into all of that.”
I asked Divaris whether the presence of the Gaylord Hotel spurred his company’s interest in Chula Vista.
No, he said.
“The Gaylord is a good neighbor, but for us, that didn’t factor into our thinking,” he said. “We’ve always admired and liked the San Diego market. It’s a great area. We’ve worked there for many years.”
Lastly, I checked on the status of another nearby development, the Amara Bay project, a massive high-rise condominium and office complex, which has begun construction and currently appears as a fenced-off dirt lot across from the Gaylord.
Little construction is being done at the site right now because developers are working through a list of 218 separate issues identified by the local water agency during a review of the project’s water infrastructure.
“Sweetwater [Authority]’s fundamental responsibility is to ensure that development connecting to our system can be served safely and reliably while protecting the interests of all customers,” a water agency spokesperson said.
“We look forward to continuing to work closely with the developer and see this project come to fruition.”
Not So Nice in I.B. After All
Last week, in an effort to share some positive news about life in South County, I wrote about the comparatively civilized nature of Imperial Beach’s three-way mayoral race.
I spoke too soon.
The next day, Karl Bradley, one of two Democratic candidates vying for the city’s top elected position, reached out to say vandals earlier that week had slashed one of the tires on his wife’s car, tore up a Karl Bradley for Mayor campaign sign in his yard and possibly poured something into his gas tank.
“Imperial Beach is not as nice as you think,” he texted.
I called him right away.
“I assumed there’d be lies and mudslinging,” Bradley said of the campaign. “I didn’t expect they’d come to my property.”
Bradley said he didn’t have proof of the vandals’ identity and didn’t want to speculate on the record.
But if the perpetrators’ intention was to frighten him out of the race, he said, they failed.
“I’m convinced someone is scared of me and they’re cowards,” he said.
Bradley said he intends to stay in the race because he loves his city and cares about its future.
“I’m not going to withdraw,” he said. “I love this community too much.”
For more information about the Imperial Beach mayoral race: Later this month, a trio of community organizations will hold a mayoral and City Council candidate forum to enable voters to hear directly from candidates. All candidates for Imperial Beach mayor and for Council districts 1 and 3 will have the opportunity to participate in a moderated discussion of key city issues. The event, sponsored by the League of Women Voters, the Imperial Beach Chamber of Commerce and the Imperial Beach Woman’s Club, is free and open to the public: 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17, at Burress Auditorium, 601 Elm Ave.
Unfortunately, I will be on vacation that week and unable to cover the event. I encourage interested voters to attend.
