Horton Plaza Says Hotel Can’t Use the Name, Files Suit

What’s in a name?

Plenty, according to the owners of Horton Plaza shopping center--or at least enough that they don’t want anyone else using theirs.

Whether the name Horton Plaza is private or public property is at the heart of a trademark infringement lawsuit brought by the owners of Horton Plaza against the developers of Horton Plaza Hotel, a refurbished Gaslamp Quarter project set to open New Year’s Eve.

U.S. District Judge Rudi M. Brewster granted a temporary restraining order to the shopping mall owners Thursday, forbidding the 68-suite hotel on Fifth Avenue at E Street to use the Horton Plaza name at least until a hearing Jan. 21. The hotel owners say the hotel will open as planned Dec. 31 but under a different name.

James Watkins, general partner of the group refurbishing the historic Watts-Robinson building in the Gaslamp area one block east of the shopping mall, said his group was hopeful of reaching a compromise with the mall owners over use of the name. But while the hotel may be temporarily renamed the Horton Park Hotel, the group will vigorously defend in court its right to use the Horton Plaza name if necessary, Watkins said.

The judge granted the order despite the hotel owners’ contention that Horton Plaza is a historic name that has decribed a “geographic area” of downtown San Diego since the turn of the century. Until the shopping mall opened in 1985, Horton Plaza was the name of a half-block park south of Broadway between Third and Fourth avenues that now fronts the mall.

That the city changed the park’s name to Horton Park from Horton Plaza in 1985 bolsters the shopping center’s position that the mall has taken over rights to the name, shopping center general manager Craig Pettitt said Friday.

“We established Horton Plaza as Horton Plaza shopping center,” Pettitt said. “Ask 10 people in San Diego what Horton Plaza is and nine will tell you it’s a big shopping center downtown.”

Watkins, a Del Mar resident, disagreed, saying Horton Plaza is a “historic and therefore generic name,” adding that a permanent order to change the hotel name would cost his group $500,000 to change the hotel’s logos, linens and advertising.

Watkins is president of Winner’s Circle Resorts, a chain that consists of five other hotels and time-share units totaling 600 rooms in the San Diego area. The Horton Plaza Hotel is to become part of the Winner’s Circle Resorts network, he said.

Other than provide lawyers with documentation, the city planning department has stayed out of the dispute, said Susan Bray, a city planner in charge of the Gaslamp Quarter.

Watkins said his group, which acquired the 74-year-old building in 1984, initially planned to call the hotel Gaslamp Plaza Hotel. About a year ago, the group switched to the Horton Plaza name and soon thereafter received a letter from the mall owners saying Horton Plaza was their trademark. The hotel group responded with a letter disputing the trademark.

Until the suit was filed this week, Watkins said he assumed the dispute was settled and the group’s $12 million refurbishing of the property continued along. The refurbishing, however, is behind schedule and only the hotel rooms will be open Dec. 31, with the restaurant to open later. Rooms will cost $100 per night and up.

The Watts-Robinson building has been used through most of its history as an office building and in fact, at 10 stories high, was San Diego’s first skyscraper, a spokeswoman with the Gaslamp Quarter Council said Friday. At its opening in 1913, the building became the headquarters office of San Diego Trust and Savings.

A previous owner tried to make the building a sort of jewelry trade mart, renaming it the Jeweler’s Exchange, but the idea never took hold, Watkins said.