Developers plan to build
3,770 rooms -- in an expansion and 14 new hotels. The first new hotel will open
as early as December.
An added bonus to the
Anaheim-Garden Grove swath near the two Disney parks: the popularity of the
$1.1 billion upgrade of Disney California Adventure, with its new Cars Land
that opened last summer.
Further, the Anaheim Convention Center -- the largest such
facility on the West Coast -- has continued to expand and may do so again soon.
A Garden Grove water park, just down the street
from Disneyland , expects to break ground later
this year.
"It's an exciting
time to be in Anaheim
with the growth and opportunities and the momentum we have," said Jay
Burress, president of the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention
Bureau. "We have to capitalize on it and take advantage of these good
times."
Tourism, of course, means
big bucks to the cities' coffers. Hotel bed taxes make up the biggest chunks of
the budgets of both Anaheim and Garden Grove . Already, the area has roughly
20,000 rooms.
Years ago, it was supposed
to be like this.
In 2007, a similar number of hotel
plans were pitched in Anaheim .
Some rooms were built on the Garden
Grove side of Harbor Boulevard . But Anaheim 's hotel pipeline dried up. The last
new lodge to open was the WorldMark Anaheim timeshare in 2008.
For years, some lots just
sat untouched -- until recently. Now, two corners at Harbor Boulevard and Katella Avenue -- the main intersection
near Disneyland -- were razed and await new
hotels with drug stores.
"As soon as the
market tanked, financing was virtually impossible to get," said Kiran
Patel, president of DKN Hotels, which is developing the Marriott. "That
was a bit of a roadblock, and we were just waiting for the economy to get
better before we started. ...
"It's basically
pent-up demand now, because there's been no new supply for a long time,"
Patel explained. "Most of the product in Anaheim is old. There is an opportunity for
new hotels."
As of June, the
Anaheim-Garden Grove area had a 10 percent jump in hotel room revenue over the
year before. Hotels are charging an average of $124 per room, according to
Smith Travel Research.
"It's really up
nationwide," Burress said of tourism. "We just happen to be doing
exceptionally well."
Of course, much of the
tourism for this area is generated by Disneyland
and adjacent Disney California Adventure, which together had more than 23
million guests last year.
Disneyland, the world's
second-busiest theme park behind its Florida
sibling the Magic
Kingdom , had a 1 percent
drop. But California Adventure had a 23 percent hike in 2012.
"Hotel developers are
seeing that it is a good time to be building and it makes sense," said
Alan Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group, a hotel-industry consultant.
Ajesh Patel, president of
Prospera Hotels, involved in four of the new projects, said room rates will
continue to rise as the hotels, which are needed, open.
"I think there's
enough demand to be absorbed," Patel said. "Obviously, there's a
tremendous amount of inventory coming on the market, but ... we're not
concerned