Boutique hotel to open in ’08

It’s the first boutique hotel set to be built on the Southern California coastline between Laguna Beach and Palos Verdes, right here in Huntington Beach.

The largest boutique operator in the state, San Francisco-based Joie de Vivre Hospitality group, is working on the design of the downtown hotel, one of two luxury resorts being built as part of the Strand and Pacific City projects.

About 10-times the size of the Strand project, the 31-acre ocean-front Pacific City project is under construction near the pier, sandwiched between the Hyatt and Hilton hotel resorts.

The Strand, a three-acre commercial project coming up in downtown Huntington Beach, is set to feature almost 100,000 square feet of restaurant, office and retail space and a 157-room boutique hotel.

When the original plan of having a Resident’s Inn in the Strand was dropped, CIM Group hired Joie de Vivre to take over.

The Strand hotel is slated to open in the spring of 2008.

Joie de Vivre’s lifestyle-oriented hotels have a unique personality based on the city’s profile, founder and chief executive Chip Conley said during an extensive presentation about the company and its plans at an economic conference in December . Joie de Vivre now boasts several successful hotel concepts based on magazines such as Wired, Dwell and the New Yorker in cities including San Jose and San Francisco.

“Not only are we in the business of creating sophisticated hotel concepts but also the psychology business,” Conley said in describing his work.

Conley, an Orange County native, started Joie de Vivre 20 years ago with a hotel in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, better known as the city’s worst neighborhood.

The hotel, modeled after Rolling Stone magazine, frequently advertised hourly rates besides the room rates in the hotel’s lobby, Conley remembered.

But the hotel was turnkey, hip and irreverent, and everything they have done since then brings them back to the first concept hotel that they started, Conley said.

He was a regular at the beach in Huntington Beach, growing up close by in Long Beach, Conley told audience members with a laugh.

Conley said he believes Huntington Beach’s personality might mirror an Elle Décor magazine.

“We have come to think it’s more broad than just surfing,” Conley said. The five main features attributed to Huntington Beach are sporty, relaxed, edgy, free-spirited and connected, he said.

Many in the community welcome Joie de Vivre’s vision for the Strand hotel.

“It’s a great idea,” said Doug Traub, chief executive and president of the Huntington Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau. “The concept is well thought-out and there’s no question it’s going to be a hit.”

Having a boutique hotel will help attract a new wave of affluent tourists to Huntington Beach, said Stanley Smalewitz, the city’s economic development director.

“The market has changed and boutique hotels are a growing segment of the hotel industry,” he said.

Smalewitz points to the success of Laguna Beach’s St. Regis Resort, Monarch Beach and Laguna Niguel’s Ritz-Carlton — the most upscale hotels in a 20-mile radius — as an example and added, “We are offering a boutique hotel on the longest stretch of uninterrupted coastline.”

With more than 10 million visitors to Huntington Beach, Smalewitz is confident that two upcoming boutique hotels will “definitely be a plus” to the city.

Conley’s staff is set to conduct focus groups and community meetings to get input from locals about the city’s personality.