70 new resorts

[Fasttr]

Will the San Diego property have a pool/outdoor area?

Not likely. Its more of a city location. In its most recent life, it was a Declan Suites, and has a very small indoor pool only. You can likely find more info if you Google Declan Suites San Diego and look at hotel amenities, or look at a satellite view of the hotel....likely not much space around it for an outdoor pool area.

 

[Werner Weiss]

Will the San Diego property have a pool/outdoor area?

The San Diego Marriott Vacation Club property is currently called Declan Suites San Diego. It shares a downtown city block with the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Music Center (including the 2,231-seat Copley Symphony Hall), and the Symphony Towers office building (34-stories totaling 521,281 square feet). The hotel sits on top of a fortress-like parking structure with 650 spaces.

It remains to be seen how extensively Marriott Vacations Worldwide (VAC) transforms the hotel. Because it's part of an intensely developed city block, it cannot become a resort on spacious landscaped grounds with extensive outdoor areas.

Declan Suites currently has a relatively small heated indoor pool with skylights, and it seems very unlikely that a bigger pool is possible. You can find a photo of the pool and and other features of the hotel here: http://www.declansuitessandiego.com/photo-tour

Declan Suites boasts "over 6,000 square-feet of flexible San Diego Meeting Space with large pre-function space" on its 12th floor. Presumably, that space can be put to different use for Vacation Club guests.

Perhaps there's an opportunity to add an outdoor deck on the roof between the two towers or to peel back part of that roof. Given San Diego's wonderful year-round climate, it would be a shame if that does not happen.

The rooms are all 425-sq.ft. 2-room suites. Currently, they're really just traditional hotel rooms with a wall dividing the bed area from the sofa area. There are no balconies. These "villas" will be smaller than purpose-built Marriott Vacation Club villas, but I hope that VAC will skillfully squeeze in a mini-kitchen and more "home away from home" features.

By the way, VAC's acquisition of the hotel is complete. According to Marriott Vacations Worldwide Reports First Quarter 2015 Financial Results (April 30, 2015):

The company completed its acquisition of an operating hotel located in San Diego, California, for approximately $55 million. The company plans to begin converting the hotel to vacation ownership inventory later this year.​

 

[NYFLTRAVELER]

The San Diego Marriott Vacation Club property is currently called Declan Suites San Diego. It shares a downtown city block with the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Music Center (including the 2,231-seat Copley Symphony Hall), and the Symphony Towers office building (34-stories totaling 521,281 square feet). The hotel sits on top of a fortress-like parking structure with 650 spaces.

It remains to be seen how extensively Marriott Vacations Worldwide (VAC) transforms the hotel. Because it's part of an intensely developed city block, it cannot become a resort on spacious landscaped grounds with extensive outdoor areas.

Declan Suites currently has a relatively small heated indoor pool with skylights, and it seems very unlikely that a bigger pool is possible. You can find a photo of the pool and and other features of the hotel here: http://www.declansuitessandiego.com/photo-tour

Declan Suites boasts "over 6,000 square-feet of flexible San Diego Meeting Space with large pre-function space" on its 12th floor. Presumably, that space can be put to different use for Vacation Club guests.

Perhaps there's an opportunity to add an outdoor deck on the roof between the two towers or to peel back part of that roof. Given San Diego's wonderful year-round climate, it would be a shame if that does not happen.

The rooms are all 425-sq.ft. 2-room suites. Currently, they're really just traditional hotel rooms with a wall dividing the bed area from the sofa area. There are no balconies. These "villas" will be smaller than purpose-built Marriott Vacation Club villas, but I hope that VAC will skillfully squeeze in a mini-kitchen and more "home away from home" features.

By the way, VAC's acquisition of the hotel is complete. According to Marriott Vacations Worldwide Reports First Quarter 2015 Financial Results (April 30, 2015):

The company completed its acquisition of an operating hotel located in San Diego, California, for approximately $55 million. The company plans to begin converting the hotel to vacation ownership inventory later this year.​

It looks like a nice place but I believe they need to create outdoor space to make it more "resort like" as opposed to a downtown hotel.

A search for December 2015 indicates that they are still offering rooms under the Delcan brand. I found this blurb online (I did not know that MVC owned these properties, and not withstanding, I wonder if there will be usage privileges at these other properties they referenced).......

Marriott Vacations Worldwide has paid $52.65M, or some $199,400/room, for the hotel from NYC private equity fund Westbrook Partners, according to Irvine-based Atlas Hospitality. Marriott's Ed Kinney says the company intends to operate The Declan as a hotel for the remainder of the year before converting the property to timeshare ownership. Ed says the fact that The Declan now operates as a suites hotel makes it ideally suited for conversion into ownership. "We're not making any major changes," he says. The 264-room hotel at 701 A St completed a huge reno after going independent from Starwood Hotels & Resorts' Sheraton brand in 2013. Marriott Vacations Worldwide also operates the San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina and the Coronado Island Marriott Resort & Spa as part of its vacation ownership plan.

Read more at: https://www.bisnow.com/san-diego/ne...-be-transformed-into-marriott-timeshare-45425

 

[Werner Weiss]

It looks like a nice place but I believe they need to create outdoor space to make it more "resort like" as opposed to a downtown hotel.

I'm not sure the building can ever be truly "resort like," but I agree about creating open-air space.

In the 1970s and 1980s, developers and architects created fortress-like downtown structures in California, such as Plaza Pasadena and Broadway Plaza (Los Angeles). These complexes had blank walls at the street level and ignored the wonderful Southern California climate by eliminating any outdoor spaces.

It must have seemed like a good idea at the time — but not now.

Plaza Pasadena was converted into Paseo Colorado, an open-air shopping center. Broadway Plaza (renamed Macy's Plaza) is now in the process of being converted into The Bloc, an open-air center.

The city block with Declan Suites and Symphony Towers is such a remnant of the 1980s. The public space of the hotel extends between the two towers. I don't expect major structural changes on the scale of Paseo Colorado or The Bloc, but peeling back part of the roof or developing the rooftop between the hotel tower and the office tower into open-air space would go a long way in taking the building from the 1980s to 21st century.

A search for December 2015 indicates that they are still offering rooms under the Delcan brand. I found this blurb online (I did not know that MVC owned these properties, and not withstanding, I wonder if there will be usage privileges at these other properties they referenced).......

I think the reporter failed to understand the difference between Marriott Vacations Worldwide and Marriott International.

The San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina and the Coronado Island Marriott Resort & Spa are both available using Destination Club points through the Explorer Collection, but that doesn't mean Marriott Vacations Worldwide (the timeshare company) operates those hotels.

I hope that the quote, "We're not making any major changes," refers to only major structural changes. I hope there will be major changes to the generic suites and the bland public spaces of the hotel. Currently, it's an anywhere-in-America business travelers' hotel. It needs to be a fun place to spend a vacation, with a theme that leaves no doubt that this is San Diego.

Marriott Vacations Worldwide could learn a lot from Disney Vacation Club about how to create memorable properties and how to use space efficiently.

I'm looking forward to staying at the San Diego Marriott Vacation Club. But I'll be very disappointed if it's just the Declan Suites with a new sign.

 

[NYFLTRAVELER]

I hope there will be major changes to the generic suites and the bland public spaces of the hotel. Currently, it's an anywhere-in-America business travelers' hotel. It needs to be a fun place to spend a vacation, with a theme that leaves not doubt that this is San Diego.

Agreed. That is why I am generally against the urban locations. I was sold on the MVCI concept as a result of the resort-like properties with pools and other amenities. To make this work they should have sufficient outdoor space preferably with an outdoor pool.

 

[JIMinNC]

Agreed. That is why I am generally against the urban locations. I was sold on the MVCI concept as a result of the resort-like properties with pools and other amenities. To make this work they should have sufficient outdoor space preferably with an outdoor pool.

I tend to agree on preferring resort-like properties, but I think that Marriott is simply responding to the wants/needs of younger people who are increasingly gravitating to urban destinations. With baby boomers starting to age out, they need to attract a younger demographic to vacation ownership, and younger people are starting families later and research shows that they often prefer higher density urban living and travel destinations - at least prior to having kids. Many continue to opt-in to the urban lifestyle even after starting their family.

 

[JIMinNC]

I tend to agree on preferring resort-like properties, but I think that Marriott is simply responding to the wants/needs of younger people who are increasingly gravitating to urban destinations. With baby boomers starting to age out, they need to attract a younger demographic to vacation ownership, and younger people are starting families later and research shows that they often prefer higher density urban living and travel destinations - at least prior to having kids. Many continue to opt-in to the urban lifestyle even after starting their family.

I would also add, that I think the advent of the DC and the ability to book shorter stays may be driving the desire to add urban locations. I think these locations will be popular for less-than-seven-day points reservations, and that may also be a factor in Marriott's decision to drop the less-than-7-day booking at 13 months to the Executive Level from Premier Plus. That change and the addition of urban locations makes the shorter stay booking option more accessible for the potential customers Marriott is trying to attract and increases the likelihood that buyers will desire to own at least 7000 points. Anyone used to paying $400-$600/night and up for a nice hotel room in an urban setting may not find the price of DC Points to seem as steep when measured against that yardstick.

 

[Werner Weiss]

I don't see a trend of Marriott Vacation Club shifting focus to urban locations.

Marriott's Custom House in Boston is an urban location, but it's been part of the portfolio for many years. I believe it opened around 1998.

San Diego will be another urban location, but South Beach and Hawaii (Big Island) will not be (unless you want to call South Beach urban because it's a densely-developed vacation area).

San Diego does not have large oceanfront development sites for new resorts with spacious grounds. And if such a site did exist, it would be so fiendishly expensive that it's unlikely the timeshare business model would work.

I think it all comes down to a business decision. For San Diego, Marriott Vacations Worldwide was able to buy a suitable building in a good location. Marriott Vacations Worldwide paid less than $200 thousand per suite for the property. The property already consists entirely of 1-bedroom suites, so the villas can use the existing footprints of the suites. I'm sure it would have been far more expensive to build a new property from the ground up.

The downtown San Diego site is close to the zoo, the museums and other features of Balboa Park, the Gaslamp Quarter, Seaport Village, the USS Midway Museum, the Maritime Museum, Petco Park (San Diego Padres), Symphony Hall (on the same block), theaters, shopping, dining, harbor cruises, and the light-rail Trolley (which goes to Old Town among other places). There's freeway access to Sea World, La Jolla, and other spots up and down the coast and inland). It's a good, central location for a vacation.

 

[JIMinNC]

I don't see a trend of Marriott Vacation Club shifting focus to urban locations.

Not yet. But they recently sent out a online survey that asked a lot of questions about urban locations and asked a lot of questions about a number of different ownership concepts that would apply to urban locations. I think San Diego is the first one, but there may be more in the future.