The Wine Institute estimates that nearly 24 million people visit the 4,653 wineries in California’s wine regions each year. That tourism's economic impact in the state, which last year totaled $57.6 billion, includes a robust hospitality and lodging market. While construction slowed a bit last year, there were 26 hotels with 2,204 rooms in the planning stages for northern California’s vineyard-rich Sonoma County, and 13 hotels with 1,621 rooms being planned for Napa Valley, according Atlas Hospitality Group’s 2016 California Hotel Development Survey.
Earlier this month, construction began on one of those establishments, the $24 million, 122-key Hotel Trio in Healdsburg, Calif., which CU Investors, its developer, expects to open next April.
The 82,638-sf hotel, situated in the Sonoma wine country, will serve the Dry Creek, Russian River, and Alexander Valley areas (hence, the “trio”). It will be within walking distance of a host of wineries and have convenient access to hundreds more within a 30-mile radius of the site.
The hotel will include 13 one-bedrooms and 109 studios, and primarily will target individuals and couples who are staying over for a few nights, says Bill Wilhelm, president of R.D. Olson Construction, the GC on this project, who spoke with BD+C earlier this week.
“The hotel will bring a much-needed, cost-effective option to the area for visitors who are looking for a high-end experience in a prime location,” said Matt Grubb, Olson’s Vice President of Construction, in a prepared statement.
Hotel Trio’s amenities will include a bar, meeting room, outdoor pool, barbecue area, lounge, fully equipped fitness center, and multiple outdoor patios with fireplaces. There will be on-premises wine tasting events, and Wilhelm expects the hotel to eventually tie into some of the local vineyards.
The facility will offer guests on-site bicycle rentals, as biking is a very popular transportation mode for touring wine country. (Wilhelm says Olson has incorporated bike-rental services in several of its newer hotels, including one that it’s completing near Los Angeles International Airport.)
Axis/GFA Architecture + Design is the designer of Hotel Trio, which Wilhelm says draws some of its design features—such as its Craftsman-style exterior, clerestory windows, and trellises—from characteristics of the Alexander Valley.
The rest of the Building Team includes ZFA Structural Engineers, CSW/Stuber-Stroeh Engineering Group, and Tuan and Robinson Engineering.
Wilhelm says this project encompasses a 37-unit apartment building under construction on the same parcel as the hotel. Some of those apartments will be workforce housing that’s priced affordably based on the market’s requirements. This building’s design will match the hotel’s, and it will open around the same time.
Despite local impediments such as finding subs and managing costs, Olson, says Wilhelm, currently has two other hotel deals in the works for Napa Valley, each in its “conceptual” stage.
Related Stories
| Dec 2, 2014
Nonresidential construction spending rebounds in October
This month's increase in nonresidential construction spending is far more consistent with the anecdotal information floating around the industry, says ABC's Chief Economist Anirban Basu.
| Nov 29, 2014
20 tallest towers that were never completed
Remember the Chicago Spire? What about Russia Tower? These are two of the tallest building projects that were started, but never completed, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. The CTBUH Research team offers a roundup of the top 20 stalled skyscrapers across the globe.
| Oct 16, 2014
Perkins+Will white paper examines alternatives to flame retardant building materials
The white paper includes a list of 193 flame retardants, including 29 discovered in building and household products, 50 found in the indoor environment, and 33 in human blood, milk, and tissues.
| Oct 15, 2014
Harvard launches ‘design-centric’ center for green buildings and cities
The impetus behind Harvard's Center for Green Buildings and Cities is what the design school’s dean, Mohsen Mostafavi, describes as a “rapidly urbanizing global economy,” in which cities are building new structures “on a massive scale.”
| Oct 12, 2014
AIA 2030 commitment: Five years on, are we any closer to net-zero?
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the American Institute of Architects’ effort to have architecture firms voluntarily pledge net-zero energy design for all their buildings by 2030.
| Sep 24, 2014
Must see: Semi-submerged hotel planned for Qatar's man-made island
Plans for a new hotel in the Persian Gulf are taking Dubai’s Palm Islands concept to a whole new level—underwater, that is.
| Sep 24, 2014
Architecture billings see continued strength, led by institutional sector
On the heels of recording its strongest pace of growth since 2007, there continues to be an increasing level of demand for design services signaled in the latest Architecture Billings Index.
| Sep 22, 2014
4 keys to effective post-occupancy evaluations
Perkins+Will's Janice Barnes covers the four steps that designers should take to create POEs that provide design direction and measure design effectiveness.
| Sep 22, 2014
Sound selections: 12 great choices for ceilings and acoustical walls
From metal mesh panels to concealed-suspension ceilings, here's our roundup of the latest acoustical ceiling and wall products.
| Sep 16, 2014
Ranked: Top hotel sector AEC firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Tutor Perini, Gensler, and AECOM top BD+C's rankings of design and construction firms with the most revenue from hospitality sector projects, as reported in the 2014 Giants 300 Report.
