Gaylord Gets OK for San Diego-area Resort

Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 8/7/2006

Gaylord Entertainment has moved one step closer to establishing a West Coast presence. The board of the Unified Port of San Diego and the city of Chula Vista have signed a letter of intent that will allow Gaylord to build a convention center and hotel on the Chula Vista Bayfront.

Late last month Gaylord announced the resort complex would include a hotel with 1,500 to 2,000 hotel rooms, and last November it said it would have a convention center with 400,000 to 500,000 square feet of exhibit space.

Because the project must still undergo a rigorous regulatory process, including review by the California Coastal Commission, Brian Abrahamson, a spokesman for Gaylord Entertainment, said it was too early to say when construction would begin or be completed.

"We have not disclosed those projections yet," Abrahamson said.

Gaylord already operates resort-convention properties in Nashville, Tenn., Kissimmee, Fla., and Grapevine, Texas. A fourth is under construction in Prince George's County, Md., near Washington, D.C. A fifth property, the San Diego one, would allow Gaylord to expand on its strategy of having groups rotate their meetings or tradeshows to several different parts of the country on a regular basis, but always at Gaylord venues.

"The extension of our brand into other markets continues," said Gaylord Chairman and CEO Colin V. Reed.

If approved, the Chula Vista Gaylord would be only eight miles from the San Diego Convention Center, which has 616,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space.