Grant Hotel Plans Major New Annex : Addition to Include Pool and Health Club

The U.S. Grant Hotel this summer will begin construction of an $8-million 96-room addition that will include a roof-level swimming pool, a sun deck and a health club, hotel officials said Monday.

The five-story addition--to be built on top of the hotel’s four-floor parking structure--will “increase the hotel’s appeal to a wider range of executive-level conference planners,” according a hotel spokesman. “Recent research shows that (existing meeting rooms) will be better utilized when there are more rooms for conference guests.”

The addition will feature “at least four different room configurations, each approximately 460 square feet,” according to Managing Director Chris Venner, who added that the varied room configurations will “help preserve” the hotel’s “distinctive” appearance.

The 283-room Grant reopened in 1985 after a four-year $80-million renovation. Although occupancy levels have been growing, the hotel has been hurt by continuing delays in the construction of San Diego’s harbor-front convention center.

It lost between $5 million and $6 million last year, according to hotel sources, who predicted that the hotel would lose about $2.3 million during 1987.

For the past year, the Grant has averaged only a 45% occupancy rate, according to Mitchell Davis, vice president of Sybedon Corp., the New York-based mortgage banking firm that serves as general partner of the U.S. Grant Hotel.

However, the pace increased to 70% in November, and, based on future bookings, the hotel anticipates an occupancy rate of between 65% and 75% through March.

Last month, Davis acknowledged that the Grant was being hurt by the loss of convention center business. He added, however, that it usually takes five to six years for a new hotel to stabilize its business.

Davis previously disclosed that the hotel had been conducting an extensive market research study to determine what kinds of additional services were needed to lure visitors to the Grant.

That research indicated that the hotel needed an exercise room, an entire floor of non-smoking rooms and a lower-cost luncheon menu. Davis said the Grant also was considering expanding the hotel’s concierge service to the hotel’s 64 suites and contracting with Home Box Office to provide television service.

Atlas Hotels, which has operated the U.S. Grant since it reopened in December, 1985, has asked Sybedon to find a new operator. In December, Davis promised that a new operator would be named within 90 days.