Mar. 31--A hotel and resort explosion is building in Palm Desert, and Marriott International is the face behind the fuse.

The hotel and resort company's name is on a host of proposed developments -- including a new, 300-acre time-share resort and golf course, two new hotels, and expansions at resorts Marriott already owns in Palm Desert and neighboring Rancho Mirage. If built, the new resort-golf course complex would be Marriott's third in the Palm Desert vicinity.

"We've had tremendous success in the Palm Desert area," said Ed Kinney, a spokesman for Marriott Vacation Club International, the Marriott division that runs time-share resorts.

Marriott approached city development officials six weeks ago with the idea of adding a 300-acre time-share resort and golf course north of Marriott's existing Desert Springs Resort and Spa, which measures about 400 acres, Palm Desert planning manager Steve Smith said. According to Smith, Marriott wants to put 995 time-share villas on property along Monterey Avenue between Gerald Ford and Frank Sinatra drives.

Marriott's Kinney wouldn't say exactly what land the company is looking at or how many villas the resort would have, stressing that the company hasn't decided on anything specific yet. "We're just in the very early stages of research right now," he said.

Meanwhile, Marriott has applied for permits to add 100 time-share villas to Desert Springs Resort on 13 undeveloped acres owned by the resort. A similar expansion is under way at Marriott's Rancho Mirage resort, Rancho Las Palmas, officials say.

"It's just been a market within our system of resorts that works well," Kinney said.

Demand for more time-share facilities in Palm Desert is driven largely by Los Angeles residents looking for a vacation home. Time-share sales have picked up, he added. "The pace of sales has kind of overtaken the pace of construction," Kinney said.

In a separate but related project, a developer is seeking permits to build a pair of Marriott franchises on 11.4 acres in a Palm Desert redevelopment zone just north of Desert Springs resort.

La Quinta-based PDH Associates LLC plans to build a 130-suite, two-story Marriott Residence Inn and a 153-room, three-story Courtyard by Marriott -- along with an eventual freestanding restaurant -- in a project valued at about $25 million.

Aside from supplying the brand names, Marriott is not an active participant in the project, according to William Swank, a partner at PDH Associates. "Marriott doesn't have a single penny in the project," Swank said.

The two hotels would occupy the corner of Cook Street and Frank Sinatra Drive in Palm Desert, near the city's year-old Desert Willow golf course redevelopment project, Swank said. The hotels should start construction in May and open in December, he said.

The proposed project would be the sixth and seventh Marriott-brand hotels built by Swank in 11 years.

He described PDH as a hotel development joint venture between his La Quinta company, Swank Development, and Salt Lake City-based Cirque Property LLC. The partnership is also considering other hotel locations, including Monterey and Oceanside.

Once built, the local hotels would be run by Palm Desert hotel management company S&H LLC, Swank said.

Demand for hotel space in the desert has been growing steadily for a decade. Meanwhile, hotel construction has stalled because of the high cost of getting land permitted for development, Swank said. "There hasn't been a hotel built in the valley here in 10 years, so there's a demand," he said. "People love to come to this area."

Mike Fife, executive director of the Palm Springs Desert Resorts Convention and Visitors Bureau, thinks the hotels will do well. "I think it's kind of a natural fit," he said. The hotels will draw on regular business traffic, but will also provide extra room space during conventions at Desert Springs Resort. "The two hotels are (ideal) overflows for the resort across the street," he said.