HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA—Coastal Orange County will be getting a new upscale hotel, thanks to Pacific Hospitality Group and R.D. Olson Development. The JV has released plans for its latest hotel project, an eight-story, 250-room hotel facing the ocean that will be part of the Pacific City development here.

The hotel, which will be affiliated with PHG's Meritage Collection, is scheduled to begin construction in June, with R.D. Olson Construction as general contractor, and is expected to be completed in the summer of 2015. It is designed to take advantage of the Southern California beach-inspired lifestyle, with each room featuring ocean views from spacious balconies with curvilinear glass balustrades, according to Bob Olson, founder and CEO of R.D. Olson. “This hotel will have a contemporary design that will fit perfectly into the beach community of Orange County.”

Designed by international hotel architect WATC, with the guest rooms designed by Monogram by Carlson, interior public spaces by Kay Lang + Associates and the restaurant and bar by Costa Mesa-based Hatch Design Group, the property will be managed by PHG, which owns and manages a portfolio of hotel properties throughout California. Some of PHG's properties include Bacara Resort & Spa in Santa Barbara, the Meritage Resort and Spa in Napa, Balboa Bay Resort in Newport Beach and Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa in San Diego.

The hotel will be located next door to the new Pacific City retail center, a 191,000-square-foot retail and entertainment project by DJM Capital Partners. The 218,000-square-foot space will include king rooms, double-queen rooms and numerous one- and two-bedroom suites. A sweeping events lawn overlooking the ocean will be ideal for weddings and special and corporate events.

The hotel will also be designed to offer 16,000 square feet of oceanfront meeting space, including an 8,500-square-foot ballroom. The property is meant to be a destination location for business and leisure travelers, with the Huntington Beach Pier tourist attraction located a short walk away.

According to Tim Busch, CEO of PHG, “We will be catering to mid-week group-meeting and conference business, and particularly Southern California active-lifestyle clients and leisure travelers on the weekends. The hotel will feature a top-of-the-line spa and fitness center, expansive pool area, outdoor courtyard with water and fire features and roof-top restaurant and bar overlooking the ocean.”

West Coast hotels are in high demand lately. As GlobeSt.com reported earlier this week, Inland American Lodging Group, Inc., through a subsidiary, has acquired the 645-room Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel in Honolulu, for a purchase price of approximately $183 million. Also, the Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua Resort was recently sold to a partnership between Michael Rosenfeld's Woodridge Capital Partners LLC and Colony Capital LLC and its affiliates including Colony Financial; as GlobeSt.com previously reported, the hotel had been on the market since May. And, Wichita, KS-based Value Place, the largest economy extended-stay hotel brand in the US, is planning to build 12 new hotels in Southern California. The firm is actively pursuing potential building sites, working with San Diego-based KZ DevCo and actively targeting markets that include Los Angeles, San Diego, Long Beach, Orange County, Riverside and Ventura.