HUNTINGTON BEACH : New Fund-Raising Campaign for Pier

Five of the largest local development-oriented firms are heading up a new campaign to raise the remaining $2.85 million needed to rebuild the municipal pier, a city spokesman announced Thursday.

The group of businesses backing the “Landmark Campaign” will serve as the umbrella organization for all private fund-raising efforts for the pier, said Dennis Williams, an assistant public information officer for the city.

The campaign’s co-chairmen are Roger J. Work, vice president and general manager of the Huntington Beach Co., the city’s largest private landowner, and Robert L. Mayer, the Newport Beach-based developer of the sprawling Waterfront project.

The new campaign is scheduled to begin Saturday with an event planned as part of the Waterfront’s four-day grand-opening ceremonies, which began Thursday. The pier benefit, to be attended by a select group of business leaders, will feature a concert by surf-music performers Jan & Dean.

The $11.7-million pier reconstruction project is scheduled to get under way within the next two weeks. The city thus far has received about $8.85 million for the project, mainly from federal, state and county grants, Williams said.

Although Thursday’s announcement of the fund-raising pledge coincided with the first day of the Waterfront Hilton hotel’s opening ceremonies, none of the officials at the hotel fete mentioned the new campaign.

Instead, Mayer joined other project promoters, city officials, local business leaders and about 250 guests gathered outside the hotel for the opening event amid pomp, celebration and self-congratulatory speeches. With flashbulbs popping and video cameras rolling, officials cut a ribbon christening the beachside hotel and dedicated a time capsule buried last week at the site.

The grand opening, which runs through Sunday, comes almost two months after the $55-million, 13-story hotel opened for business July 24.

Scheduled hotel events still to come include a beach-themed fund-raiser from 6:30 to 11 tonight to benefit the Huntington Harbour Philharmonic, which puts on the “Cruise of Lights” boating parade each holiday season. Also planned is fund-raising a ball for Children’s Hospital of Orange County.

The hotel is the first of six planned phases of a $600-million project that will sprawl along the inland side of Pacific Coast Highway.