Irvine Co., Marriott Sign Deal for Resort Hotel

Irvine Co. has signed an agreement with the Marriott hotel chain to build and operate the second-largest resort hotel on the California coast.

The 1,100-room hotel would be the first of as many as three resorts to be built on a hilly three-mile stretch of Orange County between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach.

The hotel is one of several luxury resorts on the drawing boards or already opened along the Southern California coast, which some developers hope will become an international playground like the French Riviera.

Marriott Corp., based in Bethesda, Md., outbid other major resort chains in the nation to build the hotel, according to Irvine Co. insiders who requested anonymity.

The deal has been in negotiation for seven years between billionaire Donald L. Bren, chairman of Irvine Co., and Marriott Chairman J. W. Marriott Jr., Irvine officials said.

But the agreement is subject to Irvine Co.’s approval of Marriott’s design for the hotel, which is expected to cost around $220 million.

It’s also contingent on Marriott winning approval for its designs from Orange County government officials.

If the hotel is built by Marriott, it would be among the chain’s largest resorts. The largest is a 1,500-room hotel in Orlando, Fla. Under the agreement, Irvine Co. will own the hotel while Marriott builds and operates it.

The largest resort hotel on the California coast is also a Marriott property: the San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina, which has nearly 1,400 rooms, according to Laventhol & Horwath, a consultant to the hotel industry.

Marriott has hired the Los Angeles office of RTKL Associates Inc., a Baltimore architect, to design the new hotel.

There are no firm designs yet for the new building, which Irvine Co. hopes to complete by 1993. The hotel is described only as a luxury resort big enough to accommodate business groups and conferences.

The Irvine Coast is the largest piece of undeveloped coastline in Orange County and the subject of a long battle between the company and conservationists over its use.

The two sides eventually compromised, and the firm scaled back its plans and won approval from state and local government.

The company has government approval to build 2,100 hotel rooms, two golf courses and 2,600 houses on the bare hills, which loom high over the Pacific.

The new Marriott is only the latest in Southern California’s seaside resort boom. Since 1985, eight hotels have been built along the coast, bringing the total to 21. The number of rooms has leaped to 7,500 from 4,500 in the same time.

Yet the resorts manage to keep 72% of their rooms occupied, higher than for Southern California hotels in general.

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