Luxury Hotel Set Next to Del Mar Track

Mariners Corp., a Houston-based hotel operator, will build a 243-room deluxe hotel on a tract now occupied by a mobile home park that borders the Del Mar Fairgrounds, the company said Friday.

The three-story hotel, to be affiliated with the Hilton chain, will be built at the southwest corner of the intersection of Interstate 5 and Via de la Valle on a pocket of San Diego city land. The project was approved by the state Coastal Commission in late 1985 despite opposition from environmentalists attempting to save the San Dieguito River Valley from development. The proposed hotel will be built in the flood plain.

Crews recently began demolishing the former Surf & Turf Recreation Park, according to Mariners spokesman Douglas Marshall, who said work on the hotel foundation would begin in a few weeks. Mariners has received the building permits needed to begin construction, Marshall said.

The privately held, Houston-based company operates about 30 hotels in the United States, including a new Marriott Hotel near Long Beach Airport. “We’ve been looking to expand our operations in the West, specifically in California,” Marshall said.

Prospect Co., a subsidiary of the Hartford, Conn.-based Travelers Insurance Co., is providing permanent financing for the hotel. Surf & Turf Recreation, the Del Mar-based company that owns the mobile home park, is a joint partner with Mariners and Prospect.

The hotel, with 228 deluxe rooms, 15 suites, two restaurants, a lounge, ballroom facilities and 38,000 square feet of outdoor space, will be geared toward traffic generated by the Del Mar race track and fairgrounds, Marshall said.

Mariners expects to complete the hotel in November, 1988. It will feature an Old English design that “maintains the tradition of early Del Mar architecture,” according to a Mariners spokesman.