Japanese Investor, Four Seasons Plan Major Resort in Carlsbad

In a deal that demonstrates increasing Japanese interest in San Diego real estate, an investor group including a Japanese real estate tycoon and the Four Seasons Hotel chain has signed an agreement to build a luxury resort in Carlsbad costing more than $100 million.

The 450-room resort, to be called Four Seasons Aviara, is scheduled to open in 1992 on the north shore of Batiquitos Lagoon and will be operated by the Four Seasons chain, a Toronto-based owner-operator of 22 luxury properties in the United States, Canada and Great Britain.

TSA International of Honolulu, controlled by Takeshi Sekiguchi of Japan, is investing in a number of large hotel projects in the United States, including three in partnership with Hawaiian developer Chris Hemmeter. Last year, they completed the 1,400-room Hyatt Waikoloa, a $375-million project. TSA and Hemmeter are also partners in the Westin Maui and Westin Kauai.

Also investing in the new resort is Hillman Properties, the Newport Beach-based real estate investment arm of Pittsburgh billionaire Henry Hillman that controls more than $2 billion in real-estate assets. The land on which the resort is to be built is part of a 1,000-acre parcel Hillman acquired from the Hunt Properties of Dallas for more than $70 million last year.

Although Japanese investors so far have concentrated their Southern California activities in the Los Angeles area, they have shown more interest in San Diego in the past year or so. Sports Shinko of Osaka bought the La Costa Resort Hotel for $250 million in 1987, and several downtown San Diego office buildings are now owned totally or in part by Japanese.

The Aviara resort is part of a master-planned project to include an Arnold Palmer-designed 18-hole golf course as well as convention and meeting areas and 2,836 housing units, a Hillman spokesman said. The project is part of a surge in resort development in Southern California. More than 5,000 resort rooms are planned for the Orange County coast alone over the next four years.

Aviara is TSA’s second San Diego project. TSA joined forces last tear with the Naiman Co., Shimizu Corp. and Nissho Iwai Trading Co. to develop the $150-million Aventine mixed-use project in La Jolla. Now under construction, the project includes a 400-room Hyatt Regency Hotel opening Dec 15, a 225,000-square-foot office building and three restaurants.

Construction on the resort is scheduled to start in spring, 1990, according to Robert Fox, vice president and general manager of TSA Development Co. Ltd. (California) based in La Jolla. “TSA has a very positive feeling about California, specifically San Diego,” Fox said in a statement.

TSA and Four Seasons have teamed up to build the Four Seasons Resort-Wailea, a 374-room luxury resort on Maui to open later this year in Hawaii and a new hotel in Paris, a 200-room property to be completed in 1992, said Four Seasons executive vice president Roger Garland.

“We think (Four Seasons Aviara) will provide us with a resort position in the San Diego-Los Angeles corridor which will really set a new standard for that part of the world,” Garland said.

Among Four Seasons’ 22 hotels are four in California: the 330-room Four Seasons-Clift in San Francisco, the 236-room Four Seasons Santa Barbara, the 285-room Four Seasons Los Angeles and the 284-room Four Seasons Newport Beach.