Fullerton : Cal State Won’t Appeal a Second, Nearby Hotel

A Cal State Fullerton official said Friday that the university won’t appeal a city Planning Commission decision this week to allow a new hotel to be built about one block from an on-campus hotel scheduled for construction later this year.

The on-campus hotel, to be built by the Marriott Corp., will be under construction by August or September regardless of whether the other hotel is built, said Sal Rinella, Cal State’s vice president for administration.

Rinella said the university “has some concern” about whether the market would be able to sustain two hotels so close to each other, but he said the university is not upset enough to file an appeal. The city Planning Commission’s unanimous decision to grant permission for a second hotel was made Wednesday, and that decision is final unless a formal appeal is filed by March 30, commission officials said.

The commission approved a request by Ganesh Patel of Tujunga to build a 96-unit hotel on the south side of Nutwood Avenue, between Placentia Avenue and the 57 Freeway. That hotel, to be built by remodeling an old building on the site, is east of the freeway. The new Marriott will be built just west of the freeway and about a block away on the north side of Nutwood on Cal State property.

The Marriott will be the first commercial hotel ever built on a California public university campus.