Atop The Ivy Hotel under construction are, back row from left, Richard Kelly, Michael Kelly and Dayna Lee, and in front from left, Ted Berner and Louise Kelly. The Kelly siblings run San Diego-based Kelly Capital. Lee and Berner, of Powerstrip Studio in Hollywood (www.powerstripstudio.com), are the principal designers for The Ivy.

Boutique yet unique — that’s the strategy for three hotels opening within a few months of each other Downtown.

“People want something more personable on a smaller scale, not to go into a hotel and be one of hundreds,” says Edward Kaen, developer of The Keating, a 35-room boutique hotel that opened in December at the corner of F Street and Fifth Avenue.

It’s not all about the numbers, however.

“We look at ‘boutique’ as more of an emotional experience, as if we are welcoming you into our home,” says Ken Winslow, whose 212-room Sofia Hotel is now open at the refurbished former Pickwick Hotel on Broadway between Front Street and First Avenue.

With fewer guests and a focus on atmosphere, Michael Kelly thinks his converted Maryland Hotel, now called the Ivy Hotel, set to open in late spring with 159 rooms at F Street and Sixth Avenue, will be able to score on another level: service. “When properties are intimate, as the Ivy is,” he says, “it allows for the personal touch.”

Although boutique hotels have been de rigueur in Europe for years, Americans began to make room for the concept in the 1980s when Ian Schrager launched his Morgans Hotel Group, owners of the Royalton in New York and the Mondrian in Los Angeles, among others. At first the trendy spots were noted for their celebrity occupants. Soon business people and vacationers were checking in.

But what does this mean for San Diego? “The success of boutique hotels reflects a maturity of the market as it becomes more sophisticated and attracts a larger number of discriminating guests,” says Sal Giametta, vice president of public affairs at the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau, ConVis.

That upscale clientele is exactly what Kaen is targeting at The Keating. “People who stay here are higher-end executives and leisure travelers who are tired of the same old thing,” he says.

An egg-shaped Jacuzzi is just one of the unique design elements at The Keating Hotel, developed by Edward Kaen.

Kaen’s Gotham Property Group bought the historic Keating in 2000 as an office building but Kaen says he “always knew it would be a perfect hotel site, in the heart of the Gaslamp.”

His vision hit top speed in 2004 when he went shopping for a new car.

“I was looking at a Ferrari and I was so impressed with the design that I wanted to talk with the designers, Pininfarina, about doing the hotel,” he says. “They felt this hotel was the right size for them and they liked that it was in an up-and-coming city (for boutique hotels).”

The result is a contemporary, sexy, red-themed interior. Kaen declines to reveal the cost of renovating the building, but getting form and function from an 1890s-era structure was not easy. He says one of the most charming aspects of The Keating, built by the Hotel Del Coronado’s Reid Brothers, was also its most challenging. “There are no straight walls. That’s why every room is different—even every vanity had to be custom-made. But you can’t get that kind of circular construction today. It’s old meets new.”

Design aside, The Keating is all about intimacy. When a guest arrives at the valet, word is radioed to a personal concierge, who accompanies the guest to a room and does check-in using a tablet PC.

“There is no waiting in a lobby,” Kaen says.

Of course, The Keating’s personal service comes with a price. Rack rates for a twin-bedded room start in the $300s, while the hotel’s three suites—one with an outdoor Jacuzzi — are significantly higher.

The Sofia Hotel, meanwhile, delivers its own take on a property with personality, but at more traditional Downtown rates, starting at about $150 and topping out at $279 for a Jacuzzi suite.

“We’re offering people what we think is a terrific value and yet a different experience,” says Winslow, president of Pickwick Partners, the hotel’s owner.

Because Pickwick Partners had owned the 77-year-old building since 1986, operating it as the Pickwick Hotel, a partial single-room-occupancy residence, the cost of the $16.5 million redo —begun in January 2006 and finished last month — was significantly lower than its competitors.

“It would be nearly impossible for other hotels like this to be where we are price-wise,” says Winslow, “and that is why our rates are so reasonable.”

Maintaining the building’s basic structure, Winslow’s team fashioned new rooms using custom-designed mahogany furniture, leaf-patterned carpet and soft upholstery. Large fossils decorate the walls of public areas with smaller ones in the rooms.

“We wanted to come up with a theme that made people relax,” says Winslow.

The Sofia also has a gym and yoga room. An American brasserie, Currant, led by former Anthony’s Star of the Sea chef Jonathan Pflueger, should be in full swing by April.

Winslow says the Sofia is already successful. “We had almost $2 million in business on the books when we opened,” he says. “It was a leap of faith for people who had only seen the models. But I think the value and location and our responsiveness to ConVis set us apart.”

Michael Kelly expects his Ivy Hotel will be San Diego’s premier luxury urban resort when it opens this spring. (photo/Tomas Muscionico)

While the Sofia, named for Winslow’s granddaughter, is intended to be a tranquil haven, developer Michael Kelly, CEO of San Diego-based Kelly Capital, came up with a sexier theme for the Ivy.

That sense is evident throughout plans for the Ivy. Starting from the bottom floor, which will house a boudoir-style nightclub down the hall from high-tech boardrooms, and on up to comfortable regular rooms next to suites with stripper poles — this ain’t your daddy’s hotel.

“We designed the property similar to a Las Vegas hotel in that guests can experience everything under one roof,” Kelly says.

Or on top of the roof, as the case may be. An outdoor kitchen and dining area, plus an extension of the underground nightclub—connected by dedicated elevators—and a pool with private cabanas take advantage of the Ivy’s location, with views from the ballpark to the bay.

As with the other San Diego boutique hotels, the Ivy is emerging from an old building, if not a historic one. Unlike those who restore some or many elements, Kelly chose to completely gut the structure, including the removal of 19 weight-bearing columns. The design and permitting of the 1914-era building took about two years plus another two years of construction, Kelly says.

He expects the final price tag for the hotel to be about $85 million including acquisition, but says it is a sum that holds many parts. “The high cost is primarily due to the custom nature of the entire project. A rooftop dining venue and bar, ground level restaurant and bar, lounge, nightclub, banquet and meeting space for 300 people — none of those things would be remotely typical in a hotel property of this size,” Kelly says.

Unlike the completely independent Keating and Sofia, the Ivy will be affiliated with Preferred Hotels of America. Yet Kelly says the Ivy, whose rooms will start at $375 per night, is anything but hotel chain cookie-cutter.

“We like to think the collection of businesses under the Ivy Hotel roof will continue to raise the bar on what guests can expect in a high-quality hospitality experience in San Diego,” he says.

And that’s just fine with ConVis’s Giametta. “Not long ago, people visited San Diego for what we all know and love—the beaches, the Zoo and the other major attractions. Now these boutique hotels with all of their amenities are helping to make San Diego an urban escape, too. We are going to see San Diego continue to grow in popularity as an urban destination.”