Make it Your Mission
Meet San Diego Again for the First Time
By Kevin Woo

If you haven’t been to San Diego in a while, you might be surprised the next time you visit. The downtown area and the surrounding neighborhoods have undergone tremendous
revitalization in the past few years. New hotels, museums, restaurants, nightclubs and a baseball stadium have replaced the abandoned buildings, bars, and gentlemen’s clubs that once populated the area. Revitalization began in earnest in the 1980s when the Centre City Development Corporation (CCDC) began transforming the area to attract residents
and businesses from the suburbs. In the late 1990s, voters approved a measure to build a new 42,000-seat stadium for the San Diego Padres in the East Village, which set off a new wave of development projects. “Currently 115 projects totaling more than $3 billion in development are transforming downtown,” says Derek Danziger, communications manager, CCDC. “This includes housing, office space, hotels, parking and infrastructure (parks, streets, sidewalks, lighting, etc). More is underway today in downtown than has happened during the past 25 years.”

Despite all of the changes, many things about San Diego remain the same: near-perfect weather (averaging 70 degrees year-round), 92 golf courses, world-famous attractions and the small-town feel continue to be major selling points. San Diego relies heavily on the west for its tourism as over 70 percent of the city’s 26.2 million annual visitors come from California and the Western U.S. According to CIC Research, after the September 11 terrorist attacks, San Diego became the destination of choice for many meeting planners who were looking for world-class meeting facilities within a short drive or plane
ride from major western cities. “San Diego is a great drive destination based on its accessible location and proximity from Northern California, Southern California and Arizona,” says John Reyes, vice president of sales, San Diego CVB. “Many of our leisure and regional group meeting customers enjoy driving based on having the flexibility not to fly and save the hassle factor of airport check-in.”

The newest and biggest boost to the downtown area is Petco Park (http://www.padres.com/), the new home of the San Diego Padres. Like most new baseball stadiums, Petco Park is a baseball-only facility that incorporates modern features with the feel of ballparks from the 1950s. Petco Park has seats close to the field, unobstructed views throughout the stadium and ballpark fare that ranges from hot dogs and Cracker Jack, to sushi and Krispy Kreme donuts. One of the major challenges of the stadium project was finding a way to incorporate an existing and historic, 95-year-old building into the ballpark’s design. The architects built the stadium around the Western Supply Metal Company building and incorporated a team store, party suites, terrace restaurant and bleachers into the building. Small groups can purchase in-stadium luxury suites on a per-game basis and ticket discounts are available for groups of 25 or larger. On-field recognition is available for groups of 2,500 or more. Adjacent to the ballpark is the Omni Hotel (http://www.omnihotels.com/), which opened in April. The Omni connects to the main concourse of the ballpark making it a convenient venue for meetings. The hotel has 512 guest rooms, 20,000 square feet of meeting space and four hospitality suites that were built specifically for pre-game receptions or after-game parties.

Other recent hotel openings include the newly renovated Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego (http://www.manchestergrand.hyatt.com/), which opened a second tower on its existing property in August 2003. The Manchester Grand Hyatt now offers more than 1,600 guestrooms and 125,000 square feet of meeting and event space. In December 2002, the elegant W Hotel (http://www.whotels.com/) opened, providing an additional 5,000 square feet of meeting space to the downtown area. The W features more than 300 sophisticated rooms and suites, an on site restaurant, Rice, which features a mix of Asian and Latin cuisines, and a rooftop beach bar that has a heated sand floor.

Across from Petco Park is the remodeled San Diego Convention Center (http://www.sdccc.org/). The SDCC drew record crowds in 2003; between July and September, the SDCC hosted 16 conventions, attracting 192,000 out-of-town delegates. “Despite the ups and downs of the national economy, the facility’s successful performance has not wavered since it opened in 1989,” says Carol Wallace, president and CEO, SDCC. The SDCC anticipates that it will host 35 events in 2004 with potential economic benefits exceeding $800 million. The convention center’s renovation was completed in 2001 and the expanded facility offers over 600,000 square feet of exhibit space, and nearly 500,000 square feet of meeting and pre-function space. The SDCC concourse is a series of tube-like walkways with virtually unobstructed views of the downtown skyline, surrounding neighborhood and the bay. Shopping, 7,500 hotel rooms, and entertainment areas such as Seaport Village and the Gaslamp Quarter are all within walking distance. The San Diego Trolley and the Coronado Ferry provide public transportation to and from the SDCC.

The area adjacent to the East Village and the SDCC is the Gaslamp Quarter. Over the years, the area has been known by a variety of names including Rabbitville, Flea Town, and S.O.B. (which in this case means South of Broadway). Today, the Gaslamp Quarter is a popular entertainment area with fully restored Victorian-style commercial buildings, restaurants, nightclubs and a variety of shops. Deco’s (http://www.decos.signonsandiego.com/) is one of the area’s most popular restaurant nightclubs. Decorated in an art deco Miami-style, Deco’s is known for its steak, seafood and eclectic sushi. The restaurant offers a 7,000-square-foot event room that can accommodate up to 500 people and a state-of-the-art sound and lighting system for live entertainment. The most famous structure in the Gaslamp Quarter is the Lewis Bank of Commerce building, now home to George’s on Fifth (http://www.georgesonfifth.com/), a popular eatery. Built in 1888, the Lewis Bank building was the area’s first granite structure and designed in the Baroque Revival style. Over the years, the Lewis Bank building has been home to many businesses including a saloon, and gambling house. It was once known as the Golden Poppy Hotel, a notorious brothel where the lady “employees” wore dresses that matched the colors of their bedroom doors. Wyatt Earp spent many hours gambling and drinking at the Golden Poppy after he migrated to San Diego following the shootout at the OK corral. George’s on Fifth is known for its steaks, pasta, extensive wine list and nightly entertainment. The restaurant has private dining rooms that can accommodate up to 130 guests.

San Diego’s newest (and largest) museum is the San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum. The U.S.S. Midway, once the Navy’s largest aircraft carrier, sailed to its final resting place at Navy Pier in January. The museum takes visitors on a behind-the-scenes journey through one of the Navy’s most celebrated warships. Guided tours of the Combat Information Center are available and in the future visitors will be able to experience what it’s like to be an ace fighter pilot using virtual reality flight simulators. Meetings can be held in the Flag Officers quarters where pre-function and meeting room space is available. The flight deck and hanger can accommodate up to 2,000 guests. “In the first eight weeks after its arrival, more than 250 meeting planners inquired about booking events aboard Midway,” says Scott McGaugh, marketing director, San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum. “The museum is expected to draw more than 400,000 visitors annually.”

The Navy’s premier fighter pilots also travel to San Diego to earn their “Top Gun” wings. Most civilians will never get the chance to experience a real dogfight, but Barnstorming Adventures (http://www.barnstorming.com/) of Carlsbad offers daredevils the opportunity to fly in bi-planes and experience the thrill of wifferdills, lazy-eights and mock bombing runs over Del Mar, Mission Bay and Coronado Island. If you’ve ever wanted to be a fighter pilot, Barnstorming pilots will take you up in a real Varga VG-21 and dogfight against another ace pilot. They guarantee to get your heart pounding and your adrenaline pumping. Barnstorming Adventures is a great team building exercise and there is a 1,800-square -foot room that can reserved for private meetings and functions.

No trip to San Diego is complete without a visit to Coronado Island and the Hotel Del Coronado (http://www.hoteldel.com/), known locally as “the Del.” Built in 1888 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1977, the Del meanders along 26 acres of beachfront property in the seaside village of Coronado, 15 minutes from downtown San Diego. The Del has hosted famous guests such as Marilyn Monroe, Charles Lindberg and Prince Edward of Wales. Lore has it that Prince Edward first met Wallis Warfield Simpson at the Del during his 1920 visit. Ten U.S. presidents have stayed at the Del and every president since Lyndon Johnson has visited the resort. When the hotel was built the goal was to create a resort that would be “the talk of the western world,” according to H.L. Story, one of the developers. Originally promoted as a fishing and hunting resort, the Del was considered a technical marvel when it opened because it provided guests with electricity, telephones, elevators, and pressurized water. The Del’s signature restaurant, the Prince of Wales, was recently voted “Best Hotel Dining” by the California Restaurant Association. Chef Jesse Frost’s exclusive creations include oven-roasted king salmon with spring onions and a yellow corn puree, and Kurobuta pork with celery root puree and baby root vegetables glacee. The Del has 688 guestrooms and 65,000 square feet of meeting space.

In the area of Mission Bay the place to meet is the classic Bahia Resort Hotel (http://www.bahiahotel.com/), which since 1953 has set a standard for San Diego style. The 320-guestroom Bahia sits on a 14-acre peninsula surrounded by the bay waters and is just two blocks from the Pacific. The hotel features some 20,000 square feet of flexible function space, the largest single venue able to accommodate 1,200. In addition to the traditional meeting space, the property also offers the chance to get onto Mission Bay, aboard one of two classic Mississippi-style sternwheelers. The 65-foot Bahia Belle can host groups to 200, while the 99-foot William D. Evans can accommodate 600 passengers. The ships are a great alternative for group gatherings. Across Mission Bay from the Bahia is the sister property, the Catamaran Resort (http://www.catamaranresort.com/). The 313-room resort is steps from the Pacific and features more than 20,000 square feet of meeting space accommodating groups to 600. Also in Mission Bay is the Hilton San Diego Resort (http://www.sandiegoresort.hilton.com/), a 357-guestroom property that can host groups to 1,000 in numerous conference space configurations.

The Dana on Mission Bay (http://www.thedana.net/), formerly known as the Dana Inn and Marina, is making a splash in the area. The ten-acre waterfront property is scheduled to open this summer with 62 new guestrooms and 12 suites, bringing the total number of rooms to 270. The new 3,900 square-foot conference center features 18-foot glass walls affording up to 400 guests expansive views of the Bay. Additional meetings-friendly properties in the region include the Marriott San Diego Mission Valley (http://www.marriott.com/) with 22,000 square feet of space, and the Shelter Pointe Hotel and Marina (http://www.shelterpointe.com/), with a combined 38,000 square feet of indoor-outdoor meeting space.

Twenty minutes north of downtown San Diego is the beach community of La Jolla. Home to the University of California at San Diego, Torrey Pines Golf Course, and the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla combines the beauty of a resort with world-class meeting facilities. The Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa (http://www.estancialajolla.com/) opened in June and received provisional acceptance by the prestigious International Association of Conference Centers. The 210-room property offers a state-of-the-art Learning Retreat featuring 10 conference rooms, 25,000 square feet of meeting space, a 125-seat amphitheater and 6,000-square-foot ballroom catering to academic, science, technology and corporate clients.

The famed Lodge at Torrey Pines (http://www.lodgetorreypines.com/) remains a popular meeting retreat. The only Five Diamond meeting and conference resort in San Diego features 173 elegant guestrooms, 13,000 square feet of meeting space, a world-class spa and of course is adjacent proximity to the world-renowned golf course of the same name. The Hyatt Regency La Jolla (http://www.hyatt.com/) is another conveniently located meeting facility, featuring 32,000 square feet of indoor meeting space and a special event space of nearly 6,000 square feet.

For smaller, more intimate meetings, the historic Grande Colonial (http://www.thegrandecolonial.com/) is a perfect venue. The Grande Colonial, built in 1913, underwent a $5 million renovation in 2000. In its early years, the hotel served the community as a pharmacy and soda fountain. Today, the 75 guestrooms, three meeting rooms and 3,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting space are particularly popular among groups interested in staging team-building meetings. The staff of Nine-Ten, the hotel’s restaurant, customizes off-site excursions, team cooking sessions and wine tasting dinners that promote unity and teamwork.

In the cliffs high above La Jolla beach is the Birch Aquarium at Scripps (http://www.aquarium.ucsd.edu/), a unique and interactive museum dedicated to educating people about ocean
science. The museum’s most popular exhibits include the two-story kelp-forest tank, the 13,000-gallon shark tank and the “Secrets of the Seahorse,” which provides visitors the opportunity to learn about threats to seahorse survival, why seahorses are actually fish and
other seahorse oddities. The Birch Aquarium has 12,500 square feet of meeting space and can accommodate up to 1,500.

For those seeking to get away from the big city, North San Diego County has a number of boutique hotels with exceptional meeting facilities. The Inn at Rancho Santa Fe (http://www.theinnatrsf.com/) is an upscale hotel that offers 86 deluxe rooms and private cottages. The Inn is located within a short drive of world-class golf resorts including La Costa and Torrey Pines. Total
meeting space at the Inn is 5,700 and after hours activities include horseback riding, full service spa treatments and award winning dining. Also in Rancho Santa Fe is Morgan Run Resort & Club (http://www.morganrun.com/). On-site activities and services include 27-holes of championship golf, tennis, and day spa treatments. Morgan Run has 90 guestrooms and 17,000 square feet of state-of-the-art meeting facilities.

Most U.S. airlines provide non-stop service to San Diego International Airport and the airport is located only 10 minutes from downtown. To help visitors once they’ve arrived, the San Diego CVB has set up two International Visitor Information Centers (IVIC) to answer walk-in inquiries, telephone calls and email questions from visitors. “If it’s a visitor-oriented question we do our best to find an answer or at least another source to refer them to,” says Sue Mason, director of visitor services, San Diego CVB. Over the years, Mason and her multilingual staff have been asked some amusing questions including “what type of food does the Old Spaghetti Factory serve?” Theme park and tour tickets are available at the downtown location.

Mason confirmed that the Old Spaghetti Factory serves spaghetti.