Aug. 28, 2012--Atascadero is getting a new hotel.

"It will be a large national chain hotel, but we can't say who it is yet," said Robert Best, president of Costa Mesa developer Westar Associates.

The four-story suites hotel on San Ramon Road, adjacent to the Home Depot Center, will feature 130 rooms and banquet facilities, Best said. The total cost to build will be roughly $20 million.

It should be completed in the first or second quarter of 2014.

"There are other hotels in the area, but this would be more of an upper-scale, extended-stay hotel," Best said, adding that the deal with the hotel chain should be finalized around the first of the year.

Best noted that the hotel would help to round out the Home Depot Center, which Westar began developing in 2000. The entire plaza, which also includes Staples, is about 25 acres, and the hotel will fit on about three acres.

Westar has developed and acquired 37 centers totaling more than 4.7 million square feet, valued in excess of $750 million, according to the firm's website.

According to a city news release, the hotel would generate more than $400,000 in new annual property, sales and Transient Occupancy Tax (bed tax) revenues.

To encourage the development, the Atascadero City Council approved the developer's request to defer payment of $610,000 in development fees for five years; during that time the developer would make annual payments to the city with interest (based on a 10-year amortization schedule), with the full amount due at the end of the five years, according to Assistant City Manager Jim Lewis.

The city hopes the hotel will spur other development in the area. "All elements of the deferment plan are secured by a Deed of Trust," Mayor Bob Kelley said in the news release.

___

(c)2012 The Tribune (San Luis Obispo, Calif.)

Visit The Tribune (San Luis Obispo, Calif.) at www.sanluisobispo.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services