Mar. 19--A relic of Palm Springs' past has been resurrected, thanks to new ownership and a $2 million renovation. 

Owners of the Caliente Tropics Resort, a 92-room hotel once famous for its Polynesian theme and for hosting such guests as Elvis Presley and members of the Rat Pack, expect to wrap up the five-month renovation by the end of this month. 

The facility was most recently a Roadway Inn and previously went by the names Aloha Tropics and The Days Inn Tropics. 

The hotel started taking limited guests March 10 and held a ribbon-cutting ceremony March 13. Renovations began Oct. 23. 

The project is the first such venture by Townhouse Development Co., headed by Caliente Tropics' new managing partners, Casey Jones and Charlie Robles, who live in two units on the property. 

The primary owner is Larry Miller, who lives in the Bay Area community of Tiburon. They closed escrow on the property on Sept. 6 and took over operations on Oct. 1. 

"(We) restored what we have found to be a tremendous emotional and architectural icon from Palm Springs' past," Jones said. 

Townhouse Development built a 10-person therapeutic pool, restored the 65-foot pool and added ceiling fans, data ports and voice mail to the rooms. 

The hotel will have 15 to 18 employees once full operations begin late this month, Jones said. 

The pair had been looking for properties for 2-1/2 years when managing partner Jones decided the size of the 42,000-square-foot building made it a good opportunity. 

"It's somewhere between a boutique and a hotel, which makes it very manageable and able to make money," Robles said. "Ninety rooms is large enough that you can have groups, but small enough so you can have total control." 

But it was not love at first sight. 

The Palm Springs Desert Resorts Convention & Visitors Authority ousted the hotel and its previous ownership from the organization in May 1997, according to authority President Mark Fife. 

"We received a number of consumer complaints, and wrote a letter saying we would no longer represent them. Every consumer complaint you could imagine, relative to the condition of the property, the price ... virtually anything you could think of in a hotel." Fife would not go into specifics. 

It was finally allowed to rejoin the authority in November. 

"It was the biggest dump in the valley," Jones acknowledged. "Every tourism entity that had something to do with the hotel had a file (of complaints) the size of a phone book on it." 

The hotel's list of maintenance ailments included wiring for lights that trailed into the pool, among other things, Jones said. 

Jones and Robles previously worked in the Bay Area for Joie de Vivre Hospitality (French for "Joy of Life"), restoring vintage hotels. The two have a combined 40 years experience in hotel management and have worked together for chains like Four Seasons Hotels Inc. and Hyatt Corp. 

Mark Graves, media relations manager for the Palm Springs Desert Convention & Visitors Authority, called the development "a great attribute for the city." 

-----To see more of The Business Press, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.thebizpress.com 

(c) 2001, The Business Press, Ontario, Calif. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.