After no major hotel openings in 2016, San Francisco set to open four in 2017

After no major hotel openings in 2016, San Francisco set to open four in 2017

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Developers open doors in 2017 after years of locked- up Bay Area projects

 

The Bay Area’s hotly anticipated hospitality boom will finally become reality this year, as a slew of new hotels open.

Across the Bay Area, 10 new hotels are gearing up to welcome guests before December, adding an estimated 1,774 rooms to the market from San Francisco to Menlo Park. They includ e a mix of boutique, luxury and select-service properties with a wide range of amenities and trendy technologies.

According to a report from Atlas Hospitality Group, no major hotels opened in San Francisco in 2016 and only one major property (with 174 rooms) opened in 2015.

In San Francisco, hotels coming online this year are mostly clustered around SoMa and Mid-Market. While none of the projects are the big conference hotels the city desperately needs, according to hotel consultant Rick Swig, they will still bring more outsiders to neighborhood in transition.

“It shows the changing character of the city and how it has evolved from a bunch of warehouses and manufacturing facilities to the headquarters of small tech businesses and other emerging sectors,” Swig said. “Ten years ago all these locations weren’t thought about as viable sites. Now business activities have grown into South of Market and are stable there, bringing hospitality along.”

In SoMa, independently owned and operated Hotel Via, slated to open in May, will be the first newly built hotel in the area in over a decade. With close proximity to many of the city’s most-visited attractions, the 159-room boutique at 144 King St. hopes to draw a wide range of tourists, baseball enthusiasts, weekenders and business travelers.

The 12-story hotel was designed with a minimalist loft concept in mind. The 11 suites will offer unobstructed panoramic views, while each guestroom will be outfitted with modern, custom-made furniture. Amenities will includ e in-room triple-play voice, video and data services, as well as keyless entry. Hoping to accommodate a wide range of guests, the hotel will host a rooftop lounge with private draped cabanas, communal tables and open-air fire pits.

“We will speak baby-boomer and millennial all at the same time,” said General Manager Barbara Perzigian.

Developers also expect to complete an 11-story, 196-room boutique hotel at 250 Fourth St. While details of the project haven’t been released, Axis Architecture said it’s working on a ground-floor restaurant, lobby and bar, as well as a rooftop terrace and publicly accessible ground floor garden. The renderings show modern design elements paired with rustic wooden furniture.

Catering to the area’s millennial set, a Japanese-style “capsule” hotel from hotel developer Yotel is preparing to open on the site of the historic Grant Build at 1095 Market St. in Mid-Market. The tech-focused hospitality brand will boast trendy amenities such as automated check-in kiosks, space-saving convertible beds, a “techno-wall” with flat screen TVs, and control panels for lights and temperature.

Its 203 rooms — which it calls “cabins” — are designed to efficiently use space, as well as loft-style and VIP suites with a modern aesthetic, flexible coworking spaces, a ground-floor restaurant and a rooftop lounge.

Down the road, the much anticipated Proper Hotel is a renovation of the Renoir, a 1926 Renaissance Revival-style hotel that closed in 2013 at the corner of Market and McAllister streets in Mid Market. The hotel will host three “chef-driven” restaurants on the ground floor, as well as a rooftop restaurant and bar with panoramic views of the San Francisco skyline. Designed by celebrity interior designer Kelly Wearstler, each of the 131 rooms will be styled to have “old-school French and Italian sensibility.”

Outside of San Francisco, the majority of hotels opening this year are select service or extended stay — the more economically sound option for hotel developers, said Suzanne Mellen, senior managing director of HVS in San Francisco, a hotel consultancy.

“Other types of hotels cost more to build and are expensive to operate,” she said. “These hotels make more sense for the area.”

On the Peninsula, a 177-room Courtyard Marriott in Redwood City is expected to open this month at 600 Blair Island Road. The select-service hotel will have a fitness and business center, as well as an outdoor pool. With easy access to downtown Redwood City, as well as the San Carlos Airport, the hotel is billing itself as a convenient place to stay for business travelers visiting corporate offices of Facebook, Oracle, Evernote and DreamWorks.

Several cities in San Mateo County are expecting a slew of new properties to open this fall. They includ e a 168-room SpringHill Suites at 1401 Shoreway Road in Belmont and a 205-room Residence Inn on Industrial Boulevard and East San Carlos Avenue.

In South San Francisco, a 185-room AC Hotel by Marriott is slated to open in August at 1333 Veterans Blvd. The hotel is near Amgen, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Genentech and several other pharma and biotech companies. The hotel will feature two meeting rooms, an outdoor sports court and lobby bar. Meanwhile, a 128-room Fairfield Inn is planned for the San Francisco Airport.

Perhaps the most upscale project in the works on the Peninsula is the new Autograph Hotel in Menlo Park. The luxury 250-room hotel is part of the Menlo Gateway office project east of Highway 101, which broke ground in March.

Expected to open by the end of the year, the hotel will cater to the highbrow techie set with 20,0000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting space, including a 6,000-square-foot ballroom and a 3,000-square-foot event lawn. For dining, the hotel partnered up with a yet-to-be-named local celebrity chef to design the menu of its three-meal restaurant. Other amenities includ e a lobby coffee market and a poolside bar with cabanas and fire pits.

2017 Bay Area Hotel Openings

Proper Hotel

  • Location: 45 McAllister St.
  • Rooms: 131
  • Expected opening: Summer 2017

Hotel Via

  • Location: 144 King St.
  • Rooms: 159
  • Expected opening: May 2017

Yotel

  • Location: Grant Building, 1095 Market St.
  • Rooms: 200
  • Developers: Synapse Development Group
  • Expected opening: June 2017

250 Fourth St.

  • Location: 250 Fourth St.
  • Rooms: 196
  • Developers: 250 Fourth St. Developers
  • Expected opening: TBD

Courtyard Redwood City

  • Location: 600 Bair Island Rd., Redwood City
  • Rooms: 177
  • Expected opening: January 2017

Springhill Suites

  • Location: 1401 Shoreway Rd., Belmont
  • Rooms: 168
  • Expected opening: August 2017

AC Hotels by Marriott

  • Location: 1333 Veterans Blvd., South San Francisco
  • Rooms: 185
  • Expected opening: August 2017

Residence Inn

  • Location: Industrial Blvd. and East San Carlos Ave.
  • Rooms: 205
  • Expected opening: November 2017

Fairfield Inn San Francisco Airport

  • Location: 127 West Harris Ave, South San Francisco
  • Rooms: 128
  • Expected opening: TBD

Menlo Gateway Autograph Hotel

  • Location: East of Highway 101, Menlo Park
  • Rooms: 250
  • Expected opening: TBD

 

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