Port Expected to Move on Plans for 2nd Tower at Inter-Continental

Commissioners of the San Diego Unified Port District next week are expected to approve financial arrangements and a conceptual design for the second tower of the Hotel Inter-Continental, considered critical to the economic fortune of the proposed waterfront convention center at Navy Field.

Developer Doug Manchester’s proposals “seem to have the concurrence,” of the Port District board, William Rick, chairman of the commissioners, said Thursday. “I expect they will be approved without problems at our board meeting on Tuesday.”

Ben Clay, vice president of Manchester’s Torrey Enterprises, expressed similar optimism Thursday. “We’re all shooting for next week, and I don’t see any snags at this point.”

Attorneys for the developer and for various lending institutions backing the second tower--which is to include about 700 rooms, meeting facilities and a gymnasium--this week are hammering out details of the financial plan, Manchester told the port commissioners at their meeting Tuesday.

“We will have everything completed by next week,” Manchester said. “Only the fine tuning remains to be done.”

Approval of the lease and design for the second tower would end months of uncertainty over the second hotel, uncertainty that has clouded the future of the convention center itself. A curvilinear design, modified from the original elliptical tower that would have been similar to the first Inter-Continental tower, now is planned.

Construction by Manchester of a third, 800-room hotel with Hyatt Corp. on port land near Seaport Village hinges on completion of the second Inter-Continental tower. Building of the second tower is to coincide with construction of the convention center, and Manchester would be forbidden from building the third hotel if the second Inter-Continental is not completed by Dec. 31, 1991.

In all, the three hotels would have about 2,200 rooms. Lease revenue from the hotels would help defray the Port District’s $125-million tab for construction of the convention center, and transient occupancy tax funds emanating from them would pay for operation of the center.

Security Pacific Bank has conceptually approved Manchester’s loan application for $85 million, which is most of the money necessary to build the second tower, Rick said.

Beverly Hills Savings & Loan will refinance a loan it made to Manchester for construction of the first tower, to provide $18 million in capital for the second Inter-Continental, Rick said. The savings and loan also has agreed to put up a separate, $22-million construction loan for the second tower.