Stalled Hotel Construction May Resume
The owner of a financially troubled National City hotel project says he has lined up financing that will enable his investment group to resume construction on the long-stalled development.
William Barkett, who heads National City Capital of La Jolla, said Kemper Securities in Chicago has agreed to underwrite an $8-million bond offering, the proceeds from which will be used to complete the 176-unit all-suites hotel located on the southwest quadrant of National City Boulevard and Eighth Street.
Work on the hotel was halted in April, 1990, after a dispute broke out between Barkett and his former partner and general contractor, Christopher Boomis. Several subcontractors filed liens on the property for non-payment of services. Work also stopped on a 257-space parking garage located across National City Boulevard from the hotel.
Barkett said he has since paid off the liens and has taken control of the project, which consists today of the unfinished 12-story steel superstructure and concrete shell. He said the project’s new general contractor is Tuxedo Investments, also a Barkett-controlled entity.
Arnold Peterson, executive director of National City Community Development Commission, confirmed that Barkett had been before National City City Council with a new financing plan and that he expects construction to resume soon at the site.
Peterson’s agency gave Barkett’s firm financial incentives to build the hotel, as well as the Radisson Inn, a 180-unit, 10-story hotel adjacent to the suites development that opened in 1989. Barkett’s company is funded in part by members of the Kuwaiti royal family, he said.
Barkett said the Radisson chain will also operate the new suites hotel. Occupancy levels at the Radisson Inn have averaged “in the mid-60s” percentage-wise in recent months.
According to the San Diego office of Pannell Kerr Forster, an accounting and consulting firm with offices in San Diego, the average occupancy rate among San Diego County hotels was 65.7% in February, down from 68.3% in the same month in 1990.
Peterson of the city’s community development commission said the Radisson Inn, which charges around $50 per room per night, has attained a degree of success attracting Navy personnel and their families as well as San Diego convention-goers with “average incomes who can’t afford to pay $100 or $150 per night” as charged by some swank San Diego hotels.
