Long-awaited Grover Beach hotel finally set to start construction. Here’s what’s happening
After almost two decades in development, the long-awaited hotel project off El Camino Real in Grover Beach is finally set to start construction.
The city announced Friday that construction will start in June on the 134-room Springhill Suites by Marriott hotel, located at 950 El Camino Real just east of the intersection of Five Cities Drive and North Fourth Street.
The project was approved by the Grover Beach City Council in 2007, but in the 16 years since has undergone numerous design changes and iterations.
According to Grover Beach city planner A. Rafael Castillo, the city completed some infrastructure improvements in 2013 and 2014, and the previous owners completed preliminary on-site grading and submitted plans for a hotel.
“This group had difficulty financing the project, coupled with the (coronavirus) pandemic and walked away,” Castillo wrote in an email to The Tribune.
Then in 2021, the Excel Hotel Group acquired the property, and began working with the city to see the development built, he said.
Construction is expected to take around 18 months.
What’s happening with other Grover Beach hotel projects?
The Springhill Suites hotel isn’t the only Grover Beach hotel project in development.
A two-hotel and residential development located close to this project at 1598 El Camino Real has also been in the works.
Castillo said the applicants for that “continues to refine their project and work with their respective consultants on obtaining state permits” to build a Meadow Creek bridge for access to the site.
City staff anticipates building permits for that to be submitted in 2024, Castillo said.
Meanwhile, city staff continues to work with the developer of the Grover Beach Lodge, which would add a 144-room hotel, a restaurant and 4,000 square feet of meeting space at the end of Grand Avenue.
In 2019, the city announced construction was tentatively slated to begin on the Grover Beach Lodge project in 2021, with an anticipated opening date of spring 2024.
That didn’t end up happening.
Castillo said the applicant’s consultant is currently revising building plans. Once those are submitted and approved at the state level, “construction can commence on this long-awaited project,” he said.
%20Cropped.jpg)