A $15 million - $20 million hotel is due to join the skyline emerging in the hub of the North County. The city of Escondido plans the hotel to augment the city’s underused landmark destination and tallest structure, the 80-foot California Center for the Arts.

The Downtown Escondido Conference Center Hotel would be built on a parking lot across from the arts center and include a restaurant and small meeting rooms, but one focus of the project is to increase use of the arts center for meetings and conventions. City staff are considering two preliminary proposals.

One includes 155 rooms and five stories with lead developer Faulkner USA of Austin, Texas; hotel operator Starwood Sheraton Hotels; architect RTKL Associates of Dallas; and contractor McCarthy Building Cos. of Newport Beach.

The other includes seven stories and 200 rooms with lead developers Phelps Program Management of Greeley, Col., and C.W. Clark of La Jolla, hotel operator Marriott; architect Joseph Wong Design Associates of San Diego; and contractor Hensel Phelps Construction Co. of Irvine.

The Escondido City Council should select one proposal by the end of the month, followed by negotiations on a development and operating agreement. Construction could begin by the end of the year or early 2005.

The full project includes a parking garage. “We expect some private investment on a multilevel parking structure on city-owned land to service the city’s downtown as well as the hotel,” says Jack Anderson, assistant city manager.

About 900 hotel rooms exist now in Escondido but with limited service. Cami Mattson, CEO of the San Diego North Convention & Visitors Bureau, says a major hotel will bring in new demand for the city’s attractions.

“We’ve been wanting a hotel there for a long time to attract the kind of profile that will have the incremental spending to have a greater impact on the city,” Mattson says. “We need one that’s complementary to what we’re going after and create a vibrancy.”

— Terence J. Burke