March 31, 2006
By Stephen Keller
Staff Writer
LEUCADIA - Plans for a 130-room resort and hotel in northern Leucadia are moving forward, as the company building it received permission earlier this month to sell 100 of the rooms to vacationers.

"A condo-hotel is really a financing mechanism where we build and we sell the units," said Doug Yavanian, a spokesman for KSL Resorts.

The basic idea is to keep 30 of the rooms as traditional hotel rooms. The other 100 will be sold to individuals as time-share units, to be used up to 90 days per owner each year.

While they're not staying there, the room owners can let KSL rent the rooms out as hotel rooms and the owners will get a cut of the room fees. Yavanian said that is exactly what most owners do.

"Our experience has been, maybe the most anyone has ever used their units in a 12-month period is three to five weeks," he said. KSL also owns and operates the La Costa Resort and the Hotel Del Coronado.

The California Coastal Commission earlier this month approved the purchase concept, after its staff report suggested the plan might limit beach access to tourists.

KSL already had permission from the city and the Coastal Commission to build the resort, but needed permission for the financing mechanism.

Mayor Christy Guerin talked before the commission, arguing for the resort. She said the city looks forward to the hotel, because estimates peg it to bring $500,000 to $1 million each year into city coffers in the form of hotel taxes.

"We don't have a hotel of that caliber in the city," Guerin said.

Yavanian said KSL hopes to begin moving sand sometime next year in preparation for construction, though he did not have exact dates for when the project might be finished.

It will be built on the bluff west of the Cabo Grill at the very northern edge of Leucadia.

Guerin said all the sand that will be moved from the bluff will be put onto the beach below, something the city wanted.

The project has been in the works for years. Yavanian said all the major permits were acquired before KSL took over the project in 2001. He said that right now the company is finishing up the design for the hotel.
Contact Staff Writer Stephen Keller via e-mail at skeller@coastnewsgroup.com.

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