The West Coast large-meetings scene is set for a game-changing disruption on May 15 when Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center is scheduled to open its doors just south of San Diego.
When it opens 10 miles south of downtown San Diego in Chula Vista, the 1,600-room Gaylord will not only be the largest hotel in California but the largest on the West Coast. And as with all Gaylord properties, it will compete with the largest convention centers in the region while also offering the amenities—actually many more amenities—of the top hotels.
The latest price tag for Gaylord’s inaugural West Coast foray is $1.3 billion for the 1.8 million-square-foot property, which will also boast the largest ballroom—weighing in at a whopping 140,000 square feet—in the Golden State.
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“There have been so many customers that have wanted to meet at Gaylords, but their rotations bring them into California or somewhere along the West Coast, and we have many of our brand customers that are loyal and rotate through the brand, and we just haven't had the representation. Now we can fulfill that need,” said Russ Mitchell, director of sales and marketing for the Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center. “What we found with the brand is we live in a space that's very unique, where many of our customers meet at Gaylord because they're too big for some of the big box hotels but they're too small to go into certain convention centers.”
The California Ballroom, dubbed a “flex hall” by Gaylord, has the ability to be used either as a ballroom space, with the largest pillarless expanse of 47,000 square feet, or as an exhibit hall and even breakout rooms.
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“There’s a lot of flexibility with this space, and there's nothing else like it on the West Coast,” Mitchell said. “And the best thing about it is we operate it. It's a convention center, so when our sales team sells the guest rooms, they also sell the convention center as well. So, you don't have to go to a different entity to buy the convention center and then a different entity to book the hotel rooms or other options. It's all done under one roof.”
A Boon for San Diego
Mitchell said the Gaylord Pacific fills a market niche because many groups are challenged by limited availability in San Diego proper or are too big for the hotels yet too small for the convention center.
“If we have a group that wants to get into the San Diego Convention Center and they need an 80,000-square-foot exhibit hall and it only has 1,200 or 1,300 rooms on peak night, it’s really difficult to place that business in the market,” Mitchell, a 25-year San Diego hotel industry veteran, explained. “With the Gaylord Pacific in the market, we can now accommodate that group. It’s a great opportunity for the market.”
Highlights of the Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center
Key highlights of the Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center include the following:
- Set on 36 acres on the Chula Vista Bayfront
- 1,600 premium guest rooms, with 89 suites, including 10 presidential suites
- 1.8 million square feet of total meetings and conventions space
- 477,000 square feet of exhibit and events spaces with four ballrooms, 67 breakout rooms, and more than 135,000 square feet of outdoor event lawns
- The largest hotel ballroom in California in the 47,000-square-foot California Ballroom
- 12 food and beverage experiences led by chef Jakob Esko, including Gaylord-favorite Old Hickory steakhouse and Growlers sports bar, which will feature a 75-foot TV screen and a hidden speakeasy
The resort is a public-private collaboration between RIDA Development Corporation, Ares Management, Marriott International, the City of Chula Vista, the Port of San Diego, and the State of California.
“We take a lot of pride in building spaces that take care of groups and are group-friendly, so whether it's a group of 10 that wants to do a meeting and then they want to do a buyout of the private dining room in Old Hickory, or if it's a large group of 2,000 people and they want to do a dine-around on-property, we have a lot of options, and that's what our model is built on,” Mitchell said. “Whether it's the Gaylord Pacific or the Gaylord Palms, or Gaylord Opryland or Rockies, or Gaylord National or Texan, we're all built in that similar model that we can do dine-arounds onsite, or you're in a great destination that if you want to go into downtown San Diego or you want to go to the Gaslamp Quarter or Little Italy, you have those options as well.”
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Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center
This article was created in partnership with Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center.
