Pier South Hotel, Imperial Beach - Investment Raise Completed

Pier South Hotel - Introduction:

(Eligible for EB-5 Investment)

The Project Pier South Hotel owned by Sea Coast Inn is located on 1.63 acres fronting Seacoast Drive and the Pacifica Ocean in the City of Imperial Beach, which is known as "Classic California" for its miles of untouched beaches.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Imperial Beach has a population of 26,324 approx as of 2012. The Arts, Entertainment, Recreation, Accommodation and Food Services Industry is the city's second largest employer with 1,857 positions in 2010.
The Seacoast Inn is designed as the first full service hotel in Imperial Beach. It will be a waterfront boutique all-suite property with the following specifications. Seacoast Inn LP has employed Pacifica Hosts Inc. as its agent to manage the hotels and obtained a license room Marriott to operate the hotel as part of Marriott's Autograph collection System.

PIER SOUTH HOTEL PROJECT SUMMARY
Proposed Hotel Name	Pier South Hotel
Hotel Owner	Seacoast Inn, LP
Hotel Brand	Autograph Collection, by Marriott
Hotel Management Company	Pacifica Hosts Inc.
No. of Guest Rooms	78 all suite guest rooms
Facility Specifications	Stories 4+ rooftop deck+ underground parking Building Area: 86,838 sq. ft. Land Area: 1.63 Acres
Hotel Amenities	9590 sq. ft. restaurant and lounge (about 120 seats) Outdoor pool and whirlpool 3055 sq. ft. of meeting space 9,255 sq, ft,. Of outdoor deck space 1605 sq. ft spa and fitness center Business center, Lobby Gift Shop, Concierge
Parking	113 spaces of underground parking (42,762 sq. ft.)

USP Of The Project

The Pier South Hotel will be one of the few beachfront hotels in San Diego County.
The Pier South Hotel will be the only full service hotel in Imperial Beach, and the only hotel in the city to offer meeting space and banquet facilities.
The Pier South Hotel will feature a scenic rooftop deck directly overlooking the ocean, which should be a highlight in south San Diego County.
The Pier South Hotel site is closer than its competitors to Mexico and Tijuana. Furthermore, its relative distance from the noise and bustle of the city may, among Certain segments of its potential customers, be a benefit.
The Pier South Hotel should achieve marketing efficiencies through partnership with the City of Imperial Beach and its redevelopment of the waterfront.
The hotel will be affiliated with Marriott, through its Autograph Collection brand. Autograph Collection hotels are "boutique" hotels, with unique design elements and non?standard appointments, which will allow the hotel to reap the benefits both of independence and Marriot's national branding, marketing, and reservation network.

Article

Will tourists flock to new IB hotel?

By Lori weisberg (/staff/lori-weisbrg/) 9a.m Jan. 2,2014

The new Pier South resort in Imperial Beach is one of only a few hotels in the county located right on the sand. - Alex Fuller

Imagine awakening to the soothing sound of crashing waves just steps away from your oceanfront suite, an unobstructed view of the coastline laid out before you.

That's the promise of Pier South, a newly built 78-room hotel in Imperial Beach that the developer and city's mayor acknowledge remains a challenging sell. Most out-of-town vacationers heading to San Diego County have likely never heard of this still sleepy beach community minutes from the Mexican border, and local sun worshipers are more likely to favor higher profile seaside destinations like Coronado, La Jolla and Del Mar.

Still, San Diego-based Pacifica Cos. believes its hotel, with its enviable seaside setting, will ultimately be a huge draw, certain to garner repeat business - once they entice visitors to come there in the first place.

"Imperial Beach has struggled with perceptions, some misconceived, so for people to be able to see what it looks like today is important. Getting people here to understand that is the difficult thing," said Mayor Jim Janney. "The perception of Imperial Beach, though, is worse within San Diego County than outside the county. (Pacifica Chairman) Ash Israni put a lot more into this project than the people of Imperial Beach expected. And how many hotels in the county are on the sand?"

Indeed, there are few area properties (think Hotel del Coronado and the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club) that can claim on-the-sand status, although many more can boast ocean and bay views.
More than a decade in the making, the much-delayed $34 million project replaces the former Seacoast Inn, a rundown, '60s-era 38-room property that was demolished in 2010 to make way for a new, upscale hotel that city officials hope will spark a revival and deliver hundreds of thousands of dollars in hotel tax revenue.
Pacifica, in a strategic move late in the development process, teamed up with the prolific Cohn Restaurant Group, which is operating the hotel's oceanfront restaurant, and Marriott, which brought Pier South into its portfolio of independent properties known as the Autograph Collection. Although the restaurant, SEA 180° Coastal Tavern, is open, the hotel will not start taking reservations until Jan. 15.

"I just believe we were looking at ways to limit our down side," said Len Howell, director of acquisitions and development for Pacifica. "David Cohn, as the restaurant operator, has such a strong following in San Diego County, and what Marriott got us is some insurance against the down side. Being part of the Autograph Collection, we were allowed to keep the unique characteristics of our hotel and still benefit from the Marriott reservation system."

The move to affiliate with Marriott was one of the factors that delayed the opening of the hotel, which was supposed to be completed for the summer of 2012. Construction issues related to the design of the sea wall didn't help either.

Joining the Marriott brand forced a rethinking of the hotel design that imbued the resort with a more toned-down "beach chic" esthetic and a palette of soft taupes and splashes of color, compared with the previous, busier design of multiple colors and textures, said construction manager Sergio Sandoval.

"When we decided to become a Marriott, they said, let's take a step back and look at your demographic, location and brand," he recalled. "It took us three months to agree what our brand was, and then Marriott said, let's hire an interior designer to redesign all the interiors, including the restaurant. That took several months, and then we brought on the Cohn Group and had to redesign the restaurant. We didn't even come to an agreement on the interior design of guest rooms until December of 2012."

In recent years, hotel development, with a few exceptions, has largely been moribund, a casualty of the economic downturn and the difficulty in securing financing. However, as the economy continues to strengthen, San Diego County has started to see a few new hotels coming on line, most recently with the debut last year of Legoland's on-site themed hotel and in 2012, the Hilton Carlsbad Oceanfront Resort and Spa and Hyatt Place in Vista.

San Diego hotelier Robert Rauch, who has plans to build a 116-room hotel in San Marcos, expects to see more development activity once construction on an expanded San Diego Convention Center breaks ground. Pier South's principal competition will likely come from Coronado hotels, he said. "Those seeking value accommodations will be OK with Imperial Beach, which is not a known entity except locally," said Rauch, who operates the 43-room El Cordova hotel in Coronado. "And their Marriott name will attract Marriott reward travel."

While the hotel's initial rates are just more than $150 a night and tend to undercut the competition like the Hotel Del, rates could go as high as $329 during the peak summer season, says General Manager Tim Earp.

Pacifica, whose investment came to about 50 percent or more of the project cost, also had some financial help amounting to nearly $7 million in city redevelopment funds. A large share of that - $5 million - came from the city's purchase of the property, which was then leased back to Pacifica for $1 a year. During the construction period, the developer has been on the hook for paying the city more than $6,600 a month, the equivalent of what the previous Seacoast Inn would have generated in hotel room taxes.

Earp said he expects Pier South will have little difficulty filing up during the summer season and on weekends, and beyond that, he plans to market the property for weddings and business group travel and meetings.

"The city is really looking at Pier South as a catalyst to help redevelop Imperial Beach," Earp said. "It's a pretty sleepy community, and there aren't any major anchor restaurants or retail. So there are some pretty high expectations from this."