Meeting News - September 8, 2008 - (Page 58)

Destination Insider: San Diego Edited by Terri Hardin terri.hardin@nielsen.com Downtown Renaissance Continues Those who haven’t visited San Diego recently are in for a surprise. Just a decade ago, the waterside strip of Harbor Drive remained largely cut off from the rest of the city, relegated to conventioneers, tour boats, and the Embarcadero’s joggers and cyclists. With this December’s scheduled opening of the Hilton San Diego Bayfront, the city wraps up another major piece to the area’s makeover while adding nearly 1,200 rooms to its group business game plan. For starters, the Hilton makes the San Diego Convention Center’s more out-of-the-way East halls a much easier sell. “We’ve already booked over 400,000 room nights at the Hilton with groups that are coming in to use the convention center,” said Steven Johnson, the center’s VP of public affairs. Once opened, the Hilton will also become part of a trio of meeting properties on the harbor (along with the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego and San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina) totaling almost 4,200 rooms. There’s another plus for Hilton meeting attendees: a $10 million, 466-foot pedestrian bridge over Harbor Drive that will connect the hotel, convention center, and South Embarcadero with San Diego’s gentrified East Village and Petco Park area. Plans also call for four-plus acres of green space around the bridge where convention-goers can take advantage of San Diego’s famous mild weather during their session breaks. The bridge has been long sought as both a public safety issue, because of trolley and auto traffic, and a convenience factor for attendees using the eastern end of the convention center. But the idea also fulfills a landscape architecture goal dating back exactly 100 years to then-city-planner John Nolen’s Park-to-Bay dream, which would have linked what were considered the city’s most important regional assets—Balboa Park and San Diego Bay—along Park Boulevard. The Hilton’s waterfront debut also marks the latest in a series of big-name and boutique properties (e.g., the Ivy, Keating, and Hard Rock hotels) bringing more than 11,000 guest rooms to San Diego’s formerly somnambulant downtown. “Providing those rooms and doing so in that particular space is extremely important,”said Derek Danziger,VP of marketing and communications for the Center City Development Corp. (CCDC), the public, non-profit arm of the city of San Diego and the premier player in promoting Skyline shows the San Diego Convention Center and hotel towers. downtown redevelopment projects.“It legitimizes the area’s renaissance and gives us an even better market position as a host city when attracting groups and events,” said Danziger. But even as the CCDC rolls out its welcome mat for the new Hilton, the organization finds itself mired in controversy, roiled by accusations surrounding former president Nancy Graham’s abrupt resignation this summer. Graham cited her mother’s health as the reason behind her abrupt July 24 departure. Subsequently, though, conflict-of-interest charges surfaced regarding Graham’s undisclosed involvement with Floridabased Related Cos., the CCDC’s choice to develop downtown’s $409 million 7th & Market project. Questions also have surfaced over Graham’s 2007 bonus and whether it was tied to her helping pass regulatory hurdles for downtown’s Navy Broadway Complex, where plans include two major hotels and some 1,450 guest rooms. That said, and with future downtown San Diego hospitality developments facing considerably more scrutiny and potential slowdowns, the CCDC announced in late August that it would be conducting a legal review covering the past three year’s worth of its transactions, which range from Ballpark Village to the much-anticipated rehab of Civic Center Plaza, to root out any conflicts of interest with consultants and developers.“We will turn over every stone and blade of grass to vet not only conflicts, but the appearance of conflicts,” said CCDC board chairman Fred Maas in a statement. “This process will not be pretty and is to include much more than Nancy Graham’s dealings.” The CCDC controversy has not gone unnoticed by the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau, especially as it relates to potential meetings business. “Clearly what’s happened in recent weeks with the CCDC creates a lot of uncertainty,” said Salvatore Giametta, the CVB’s VP of community relations.“There’s certainly that potential for delays” for some projects, added Giametta, notably with the already-slowed Navy Broadway development. “These kinds of situations are very challenging, and the CCDC is doing the best it can to navigate things,” he said. “The role that the CVB can play is to help clarify to our important customers that despite what’s going on with San Diego’s development, prospects are still very —Marc Boisclair sound.” www.meetingnews.com 58 MeetingNews September 8, 2008 http://www.meetingnews.com

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Meeting News - September 8, 2008

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