Potential boutique hotel coming to El Paseo
A four-star boutique hotel could be coming to Palm Desert near El Paseo. Currently, the proposed plan yields nothing but positivity from pedestrians and shop owners alike.
“I’m so happy about it. We will have more business from the hotel. So, it’s good for my business,” said Lyna Phan, owner of Pretty Nails, which is located next to the vacant lot where the hotel is planned to be built.
The site of the possible hotel is on a vacant lot on Larkspur Lane between El Paseo and Shadow Mountain Drive, where Fashion Week has been held for the past several years. If the building goes through, Fashion Week would need to find a new location.
“Fashion Week is absolutely going to continue. We are not sure exactly where. We are working with Palm Spring’s Life on a couple different locations to move it somewhere here on the street. But obviously this isn’t a location where we can have it anymore,” said David Fletcher, President of the El Paseo Merchant Association.
SEE THE FULL PLANS FOR THE NEW HOTEL HERE
“We do not have a boutique hotel of this size and of a four-star nature, so we think it will work well with the other hotels that we already have to offer in the city,” said Lauri Aylaian, Director of Community Development for Palm Desert.
The hotel will not be owned by a national brand, but will be a part of the Marriott’s Autograph Collection; therefore people will be able to book rooms through the Marriott website. Originally, the building was planned to be four stories tall, however after reconsidering the potential limitations in the scenic mountain view, it was dropped to three stories.
“The original site development, which was with the previous developer, planned to have the site take the entire 2.1 acres for buildings. And this has been greatly reduced, so that will give them more accessibility for mountain views,” said Ruth Ann Moore, Economic Development Manager for City of Palm Desert.
The City of Palm Desert would be cashing in on the new hotel too.
“The occupants of the hotel will pay a transient occupancy tax, which feeds into our general fund to pay for police, fire, road work, and maintenance,” said Aylaian.
Business owners are hopeful the new hotel can help with year round business.
“Usually in the summer it’s really slow. But when the hotel goes up, it will be good for the summer,” said Phan.
The Palm Desert City Council will be having a public hearing and final vote on the construction of the hotel on June 18. If passed, developers say they could break ground in September and the hotel should be up and running in a year and a half.
