Paul Clinton
A new-kid-on-the-block luxury hotel along Huntington Beach's
coastline is expected to snatch some corporate events and larger
fund-raisers away from Newport-Mesa, but local hoteliers are
confident the shopping and allure of the area will ultimately carry
the day.
In late January, the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort & Spa
opened along a stretch of Pacific Coast Highway amid much fanfare.
The sprawling $120-million resort offers more than 110,000 square
feet of meeting and function space, 517 luxurious guestrooms and a
full-service business center. The hotel's 20,000-square-foot Grand
Ballroom and 10,700-square-foot exhibition hall are also one of a
kind in coastal Orange County.
"Anytime you have a new hotel coming in, it's going to have an
effect on business," said Mehdi Eftekari, the general manager at
Newport Beach's Four Seasons Hotel. "Inquiring minds want to know."
Worrisome to some in the local hotel industry is that none of
Newport-Mesa's 14 hotels -- there are seven in each city -- offer
facilities that can accommodate an event larger than about 500
guests. And none offer a conference center.
This point was not lost on newly elected Huntington Beach
Councilwoman Jill Hardy, who in January lauded the Hyatt as
"something the Newport Beach hotels can't offer."
Eftekari's Four Seasons counts 35,000 square feet of meeting
space, highlighted by the 8,000-square-foot Palm Gardens outdoor
tented area, the 6,600-square-foot Grand Ballroom and a clubhouse at
Pelican Hill Golf Course.
Hilton Costa Mesa, the largest of the Costa Mesa hotels, offers
almost half the amount of function space of the Hyatt with 46,000
square feet. That hotel considers the 12,160-square-foot Pacific
Ballroom its crown jewel.
Hilton General Manager Richard Ham acknowledges that while his
hotel hosts its share of corporate events, the Hyatt will be able to
attract the larger events.
"It's a different world than Huntington Beach," Ham said. "Our
target audience is different from their target audience."
While a peak event at the Hilton would reach capacity at about 400
guests, a filler at the Hyatt could accommodate more than 2,000
people. Events larger than that would usually book the Anaheim
Convention Center, which offers 1.4 million square feet of meeting
and function space.
Other than the Hilton, only the Westin South Coast Plaza, with
26,650 square feet of space, can claim a significant share of the
corporate-event market in Costa Mesa.
