The new name on Shelter Island may be Hilton. Before there was a Port of San Diego (Est. 1963) there was a Shelter Island — dredged up, despite its world-apart name, as an auto-accessible peninsula in the late 1940s. From its manmade creation, Shelter Island immediately embodied the two-faced look of the modern San Diego waterfront — working on one end, playing on the other.

It sheltered two harbors: the posh Shelter Island Yacht Basin to the west, and on the east end the boatyards in what was then known as Commercial Basin and now is America’s Cup Harbor.

In 1953, Shelter Island’s Kona Kai became The Destination for visitors arriving in San Diego by car. It’s time again for the island to attract new guests, say executives of four hotels joined together as Shelter Island Village: Bay Club Hotel & Marina, Humphrey’s Half Moon Inn & Suites, Island Palms Hotel & Marina and Kona Kai Resort & Marina. The Web site is shelterislandvillage.com.

“We’re trying to get groups that are staying Downtown out of the box and into this village,” says Sergio Davies, general manager of Bartell Hotel’s Half Moon Inn. “We have four beautiful hotels within a mile.”

Shelter Island offers memorable dining choices. Besides the hotel’s restaurants, they include the Bali Hai, Brigantine, Fiddler’s Green and Red Sails Inn. Visitors can even tie up their boats at the recreational slips that augment the seven marinas’ 1,244 slips.Shelter Island offers the view of San Diego that people worldwide see in photos from the mile-long, bayside park and promenade edging its 12.5 acres. The hotels have plenty of parking as well, says Davies, a native of Rio de Janeiro who has been with Bartell for 19 years.

Humphrey’s is one of San Diego’s premier concert destinations. Davies says it also is used to accommodate corporate groups of up to 1,000. The Half Moon Inn has eight other indoor and outdoor meeting spaces. The Kona Kai Ballroom can handle up to 1,110 in its 9,324-square-foot ballroom — even more on its outdoor beach and garden. The Island Palms accommodates groups up to 150 and the intimate Bay Club Hotel can cater up to 60. Together, they offer 50,000 square feet of conference space and 600 hotel rooms.

Soon there could be more. Bartell is talking with Hilton about developing a Hilton Garden Inn on the west side of the Island Palms. If inked, ground would break in spring 2008. New competition looms as well. A 150-room Homewood Suites by Hilton should open in September and a 200-room Courtyard by Marriott in January in nearby Liberty Station. And a 650-room Nickelodeon Resorts by Marriott, with hotel and water park, is slated to break ground in January adjacent to the boat channel off Harbor Drive, the direct road between Shelter Island and Downtown.

— Terence J. Burke