Builder of Luxury Hotel Gets OK to Bring in New Manager

The winner of a competition to build a resort-style hotel on Harbor Island won approval Tuesday from the Board of Port Commissioners to bring in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. as the new hotel manager.

In doing so, developer R. Barry McComic officially dropped Stouffer Hotel Management Corp. as the luxury hotel’s management partner.

Port District Director Don Nay said he was reluctant to endorse the change. He noted that McComic and Stouffer as a team had won out over several others last year in a stiff competition to build on the last remaining hotel site on the picturesque island in San Diego Bay.

He said McComic, through his Boulder Creek Co., and Stouffer had submitted a specific plan and hotel design and that switching partners would be contrary to the rules of the competition.

In addition, Nay said McComic now wanted substantial changes in the design of the hotel to accommodate Ritz-Carlton, which was one of the losers of last year’s competition and is set to operate a new hotel in La Jolla.

But McComic said he was unable to reach a satisfactory management agreement with Stouffer and stressed to commissioners that he wasn’t “shopping around” his development option.

He said the new hotel, which on the outside is very similar to the original design, will cost $100 million instead of $75 million, which was the cost of the Stouffer facility. McComic said much of the additional expense will be used to upgrade the interior of the hotel to Ritz-Carlton standards.

Commissioners said they weren’t particularly concerned with the change to a new hotel operator, but wanted to make sure the design would be as close as possible to the one approved last year.

“Unless Mr. McComic can produce what we agreed to, (then) we have to consider the possibility of (another competition),” Commissioner Ray Burk said. “The issue isn’t one of design, it’s one of fairness.”