Santa Monica : Guest Quarters Hotel Opens

The 253-room Guest Quarters Suite Hotel opened this week. It is the second of four new major hotels opened or scheduled to open near the Santa Monica Civic Center.

The hotel, located at 1707 4th St., is on land owned by the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District and leased to the hotel. The district, which faces severe financial problems, expects to receive about $436,000 annually in rent beginning in 1992.

The city expects to receive about $750,000 annually from the hotel in so-called transient occupancy tax, which is 12% of room rates. Daily rates will be between $145 and $185, after two months of special reduced rates.

The Guest Quarters follows the opening of the 350-room Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel on Ocean Avenue last year. Two other hotels are being built on Ocean Avenue. A 194-room Park Hyatt at Pico Boulevard is expected to open late this year, and a 175-room hotel next to Loews by Maguire Thomas Partners will open late next year.