Newporter may add ballroom

Paul Clinton

The new owners of the city’s oldest hotel, the Hyatt Newporter, are

kicking around the idea of including a ballroom and conference center

as part of a $14-million upgrade.

By adding those features to the hotel, which was built in 1962,

the Hyatt Newporter would be more competitive in a local hotel

marketplace that includes the newly expanded Balboa Bay Club &

Resort, the newly built Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort & Spa

and a handful of other Newport-Mesa hotels that offer sizable meeting

space.

“We have to level the playing field with our competitors,” said

Bruce Brainerd, the Newporter’s general manager. “It’s keeping up

with the Joneses, which is life in [the tourism] business.”

Brainerd announced the hotel’s revamp in March, about three months

after the sale of the hotel by Wyndham International Inc. on Dec. 5.

The luxury hotel chain sold the Newporter to Westbrook Hotel Partners

IV. Sunstone Hotel Investors, the hotel operator, launched the plan,

which Brainerd has said was long overdue.

The 403-room hotel, formerly known as the Newporter Inn, would see

a full-scale renovation scheduled to begin in September. Guest rooms

would be gutted. The floor plan, including 20,000 square feet of

meeting space, would be redesigned. Walkways, public areas and the

Spanish-style architecture could also see changes. The hotel’s

restaurant and sports bar are also targeted for face-lifts.

The hotel would install the ballroom and conference center on its

existing property under its allocated development footprint. It

would not require a Greenlight vote.

Local tourism leaders welcomed news that a conference center is

now on the table for the future Newporter.

“That would be wonderful,” said Marta Hayden, the executive

director at the Newport Beach Conference & Visitors Bureau. “The

groups have been getting larger. We do have groups that we haven’t

been able to accommodate.”