Sycuan Tribal Chairman Danny Tucker shows a mockup of a typical guest room at the U.S. Grant Hotel, which is undergoing a $52 million renovation.

Danny Tucker is fully enjoying his second term as chairman of the Sycuan Indian Band. He says he’ll run for another four-year term in December because “it’s in my blood.”

Tucker, 54, is sitting in the first floor shell of Downtown’s U.S. Grant Hotel, trying to convince Mark Dibella, director of sales and marketing for the hotel, and others, that a $52 million renovation will be done in time for a September reopening. No one believes him. “A soft opening anyway,” Tucker says.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide later announces that the official reopening of the 96-year-old hotel will be Nov. 1 under its Luxury Collection comprised of 75 high-end hotel properties around the world.

“We’re going to put the hotel on the international map where it hasn’t really been before,” says Dibella.

Tucker says the Sycuan tribe intended to renovate the hotel when it purchased it in 2003 for $45 million. The acquisition was meant as an investment, one of many nongaming ventures the tribe has launched over the past few years, yet it was also a way to acknowledge the building’s historical ties to the Indian nation.

The hotel was built by Ulysses S. Grant Jr. to honor his father. In 1875, President Ulysses S. Grant signed an executive order setting aside 640 acres in East County’s Dehesa Valley for the Kumeyaay tribes and granted them sovereignty. Sycuan Resort & Casino now sits on the land.

“The historical part really fits in with who we are,” says Tucker. “And,” he says, laughing, “we are not going to use the hotel for gaming.”

Actually, the 11-story, 272-room hotel is being remodeled to reflect its 1910 origins. Some of the work will be the addition of wrought iron exterior lights, third floor rooftop gardens and bringing back the original grand entrance on Fourth Avenue.

Guest rooms have nine-foot ceilings and will contain custom-designed, Empire-style furnishings, 32-inch, flat-screen plasma televisions, cordless phones, WiFi connectivity, bathroom stone counter vanities, basin sinks and large marble showers.

Forty-five of the rooms are suites, three of which are of presidential caliber, which Tucker says meets Secret Service requirements for presidential visits. (Thirteen U.S. presidents have stayed at the hotel, the tribal chairman says. Former President Jimmy Carter attended his Naval Academy class of 1947 reunion at the Grant in the fall of 2000.)

Rates for king-size bedrooms will be $385 a day. Suites start at $650 and reach $2,500 for presidential suites. Event space will total 35,000 square feet, including the 9,300-square-foot Presidential Ballroom with a built-in 1,000-square-foot theatrical stage, and 22 separate event rooms. The Grant Grill will return offering a new cuisine.