Del Mar Plaza, Inn Set to Open to Cheers, Jeers

A spotlight on Del Mar, please . . .

. . . and on this corner we have the newly opened Del Mar Plaza, a $26-million, 69,000-square-foot community shopping center featuring a tantalizing ensemble of 35 retail shops, a trio of tony restaurants, a 380-car subterranean parking garage and broad public plazas with sweeping ocean views, all of it masked by a “pluralistic” design that attempts to mimic the jumble of existing store fronts stretching south along the city’s main commercial thoroughfare . . .

. . . just across the street is the nearly completed Inn at Del Mar, a 123-room hotel that will include 7,000 square feet of conference rooms, a 4,500-square-foot restaurant, a European-style health spa and a multiseat tennis complex. Wrapped in an old-world exterior reminiscent of the original Hotel Del Mar, which stood on the spot two decades ago, the $30-million project is expected to combine with the plaza to form a new commercial centerpiece for the city . . .

Ta-da.

After more than five years and four brutal elections that sharply divided this upscale seaside city of 5,000 people, after months of construction and weeks of fanfare with more to come, the new Del Mar Plaza and the Inn at Del Mar are finally set to begin business.

Obviously, these are not two run-of-the-mill enterprises, but rather profound undertakings that promise to alter forever the character of Del Mar’s downtown core along bustling Camino Del Mar. Some say it’s for the best. Others don’t like what they see.

“I think they’re going to be a very fine asset for the town,” said former Mayor Lew Hopkins, a big booster of the hotel and plaza. “Aside from the economic benefits to the city, these projects have the opportunity to provide the social center that we have not had.”

Hatched in Early ‘80s

“I guess my feelings haven’t changed any--I voted against them and I’m still against them,” said Chuck Newton, an arch foe of the pair. “It’s been obvious all along that Del Mar cannot support projects of that size. . . . The only benefit I see is they’ll help our figures. With all the traffic they’ll generate, we’ll have to walk everywhere.”

The history of the two projects has been clouded by controversy. Both were hatched in the early 1980s and prompted an immediate response from Del Mar residents.

After the city approved plans for a much larger, 110,000-square-foot shopping complex, opponents responded by approving a ballot measure in April, 1986 that required a citywide vote on all large downtown developments.

A dramatically scaled-down plaza squeaked through by a bare 41-vote margin in a special election in February, 1987, despite arguments by opponents that the project was still too big, would cause monumental traffic problems and seemed an economically risky undertaking that could end up a white elephant.

Most of the same opponents rose up against the hotel when it was put on the ballot in September, 1987, defeating it by a mere 15 votes. The determined developer, longtime Del Mar resident and resort impresario Jim Watkins, submitted a slightly smaller plan to a second election in February, 1988 and the hotel got the green light with 56% of the vote.

Since then, the two parcels have been stormed by bulldozers and swarms of workmen, rising relatively quickly to the delight of Watkins and the plaza developers, local residents Ivan Gayler and David Winkler.

Indeed, as the developers give tours of their respective projects, they can barely hold back their enthusiasm, gushing about the views or expounding excitedly about the cast-iron construction, craftsmanship they suggest will make each an architectural marvel for the next century.

Shops and Restaurants

At the plaza, shops and restaurants march up a terraced hillside, all of them fanning out from the market that is the focal point of the development.

Attention to detail is everywhere, from the flowing fountains to the giant inlaid compass along a walkway to the herb garden and planters full of rose bushes. Features such as brass railings, flagstone steps and a multitude of planting areas combine to give the project an old-world look.

“The whole idea was to create a little hillside village, a collection of buildings with the parking shoved out of the way underneath,” Gayler said. “We wanted to re-create the idea of the small town. It’s something that has existed for a millennium, where a mix of public spaces and the marketplace make it the heart of a community.”

To that end, the pair have signed on a wide array of merchants to fulfill a variety of consumer needs. When most of the businesses open in the next few weeks, the complex will include a dry cleaner, a shoe repair shop, a culinary store, a gourmet food shop, a coffee house, book and stationery stores and a sports shop.

High Rent for Merchants

Attracting such merchants is one thing, but keeping them is another. With rents ranging up to $4.50 a square foot, space at the plaza will come at a high price, and many retailers could be hard-pressed to keep afloat.

“Those of us opposed to it have always had questions about the economics of the plaza,” Newton said. “Some in our group have made projections that suggest it would be difficult for people to economically make it there.”

Gayler and Winkler, however, remain optimistic, and they have staked their personal wealth on the notion that the plaza will be able to attract a strong and loyal local clientele.

“This is not built as a tourist project,” Gayler said. “It’s not built as a novelty. It’s been built to serve this community.”

Watkins, too, contends that his hotel will serve as a focal point for local residents, though opponents question whether guests paying room prices that start at $140 a night will cotton to non-paying residents sharing the grounds.

Aside from the sharply peaked shingle roofs and intricate brick work on the exterior, the hotel, with a scheduled August opening, will include a grand lobby with peaked glass entryway, a massive brick fireplace similar to one in the old Hotel Del Mar, rich wood paneling and dramatic, vaulted ceilings in the restaurant and many of the rooms.

A small amphitheater will be set in the park-like gardens outside the hotel. Inside, a courtyard garden is enclosed on three sides by the structure. A lighted pathway leads from the grounds to the beach and Amtrak station, where passengers will be greeted and ushered up to the hotel.

Retail shops in a separate building next to the hotel will sell gifts, wine and cheese as well as upscale sports items. Watkins wants to re-create the legend of the original Del Mar Hotel, which was a destination for Hollywood greats during its heyday in the 1930s and ‘40s.

“Really, this is not a new hotel. We’re bringing back a legacy,” Watkins said. “It will be a trophy property. It will be one of a kind. I wouldn’t say there would be another property like this in my lifetime.”

Watkins’ firm, Del Mar-based Winner’s Circle Resorts, is involved in time-share condominium developments in Solana Beach, Carlsbad and Oceanside. He also restored the Horton Park Plaza Hotel in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter.

As a resident of Del Mar for more than two decades, Watkins suggests he has an emotional tie to the community that has prodded him to plan a hotel that will be among the best.

“When it was defeated the first time, we obviously were disappointed, but it gave us the time to make this hotel even better,” Watkins said. “Now that people are starting to see what it is, most are getting as excited as we are.”

But not all. Critics remain convinced that both the hotel and plaza will cause ruinous traffic tie-ups, draw new hordes of tourists and generally trample the small-town ambiance that has characterized Del Mar for years. Moreover, some people are worried that the projects could usher in changes along the commercial corridor.

“I think a new Rodeo Drive is what they’re heading for, probably with the same traffic tie-ups as Rodeo Drive,” said Alice Goodkind, an opponent of the two projects. “I know it’ll ruin my neighborhood. There’s no way that they’ve included enough parking for the plaza, so people will be spilling out onto all the residential streets.”

Mayor John Gillies, a foe of the projects, agreed. Though he hopes the hotel and plaza succeed, Gillies doesn’t hide his wishes that they had never been built.

“A lot of people feel the hotel and the plaza really toned Del Mar up, that they’re two exciting projects that really put Del Mar on the map,” Gillies said. “But I think there are those of us who didn’t want Del Mar on the map.”