After nearly five years of construction, the countdown has begun to the opening later this month of the newest, and arguably greatest, addition to the stable of Utah hospitality magnate Earl Holding: The Grand America Hotel.
The "soft" opening date has been tentatively set for March 24, but that could change depending on whether the 900 workmen currently on the site meet their work schedules, said Mark Hodgdon, managing director of the 24-story mega-hotel on the block between Main and State streets and 500 to 600 South.
"We already have reservations for the end of March and for future months," said Hodgdon, who came to Salt Lake City late last year from his former position as managing director of The Phoenician, a five-star, ultra-luxury resort in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Even if all the work needed to open is completed by March 24, construction will continue into April on the low-rise guest room wings, the spa and fitness center, the ballroom entry on 500 South, the outdoor pool and courtyard and some offices and meeting space.
Nevertheless, the first guests — and all those to come in years ahead — will have high expectations of the Grand America, and Hodgdon vows they won't be disappointed.
Holding, who also owns the Little America Hotel across Main Street, along with Sinclair Oil, Sun Valley Resort, Snowbasin Resort and a half-dozen other hotel properties, rarely
gives press interviews and did not make an exception for this article. Similarly, no one in his privately held company is saying how much money went into the building of the Grand America.
Holding is not an architect, but he is being credited for the "classic European" architecture of the massive, 1.65 million-square-foot Grand America, which is covered in 300,000 square feet of white granite quarried in Bethel, Vt., shipped overseas to Spain for cutting and fabricating, sent back to the West Coast via the Panama Canal, then trucked to Salt Lake City.
"He had some help from an architecture firm out of Atlanta, but Earl Holding was the architect of this hotel," Hodgdon said. "He has been personally involved in every inch and detail of its design. He has built something extraordinary for Salt Lake City."
Of that, there is no doubt. Many believe there has been nothing of similar grandeur since the Hotel Utah closed its doors in 1987 to later reopen as the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.
But is there a market for 775 new rooms in the already overbuilt Salt Lake hotel market? Especially rooms that start at $225 per night for a standard guest room, go to $357 for an executive suite and an unspecified "market rate" for presidential suites?
Not surprisingly, Hodgdon believes there is.
"We provide a luxury hotel environment with world-class service that will exceed the expectations of the local community, and, regardless of price, our guests will perceive and receive real value for their dollar," he said. "We'll be the most affordable hotel in town based on the experience provided."
It's too bad the Grand America didn't open a year ago, or better yet, in 1999, when the soaring stock market and red-hot economy made high rollers out of virtually everyone who bought stock in a dot-com.
But that was then, and this is now. The high rollers have been margin-called back to reality, and the market for posh hotel rooms is smaller. The Grand America will just have to make do.
"You rarely see anyone build a hotel and then not open it," quipped Robert Benton, a Denver-based hospitality consultant and co-producer of the Rocky Mountain Lodging Report.
"The Grand America will have to rely on attracting a lot more group and convention business than has been usual for Salt Lake City. Your (Salt Lake's) convention hotels don't get those kinds of room rates."
According to the January report of the Utah Hotel & Lodging Association, the average downtown Salt Lake hotel room rented for $81.82 per night in December 2000. The rate dropped to $64.69 for the airport and north Salt Lake area, $70.88 for the south valley and an average of $73.94 for the county overall.
Occupancy rates in Utah plunged from 74 percent last August to 47 percent in December, but that is a seasonal dip that occurs every year as the convention business dries up during the holidays. Ironically, the average room rate statewide shot up in December as hoteliers increased rates for the holiday ski vacationers. Also normal.
The Grand America is the third luxury hotel to open downtown in the past 18 months (the Monaco and the Marriott on State at Second South are the others), and the other downtown hotels have been swapping franchises right and left. The Hilton City Center Hotel announced Wednesday it will spend $7.5 million on renovating its new property (formerly the Doubletree) on West Temple.
Salt Lake's low unemployment rate was thought to be a hindrance to the labor-intensive hospitality industry, but the Monaco, which opened in August 1999, the Marriott in January and now the Grand America have had no staffing problems — at least none that their managers are willing to admit.
"We have been pleased with the quality and caliber of employees we have been able to attract," Hodgdon said. "Obviously, with the level of service to be provided, there is a great deal of training and orientating needed to get them where they need to be for that sophisticated world traveler."
Victoria International Corp., a New York-based company that specializes in opening luxury hotels, has been hired to develop and train the Grand's staff. Hodgdon estimates that when it's up to operating capacity the hotel will employ 600 to 800 people.
All this hotel action has, of course, been spurred by the 2002 Winter Games now less than 12 months away. But the Games represent only an opportunity for hoteliers, not a guarantee.
"The Olympics will offer Salt Lake the chance to showcase what the city has to offer, but you can't build a hotel for a two-week event," Benton said. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but it will require continued marketing after the Games to keep it going."
What about those grand Grand America room rates? Benton says those prices represent a "rack rate" that the city has not seen before, but he says a luxury hotel's published room rates are merely a starting point, particularly when a hotel is trying to establish itself.
"The hotel will discount those prices," Benton said. "Very few hotel guests typically pay the rack rate, but the rates set in the consumer's mind what quality of hotel it is."
No problem there. Grand America has the quality thing nailed.
"I can convey to you that we intend to compete favorably with all the high-end hotels and destination resorts, such as the Ritz-Carlton and Four Seasons, in the United States and many around the world that fit in that niche," Hodgdon said.
Although it is a stand-alone hotel, The Grand America will benefit from the synergies of its sister lodgings across the street. Between the Grand America and Little America, Holding can offer conventions a whopping 1,625 guest rooms — about 10 percent of the total rooms in the county — and more than 100,000 square feet of meeting space on 20 acres of land covering two city blocks adjacent to each other.
That's pretty strong firepower for attracting larger conventions, the ones that usually go to Las Vegas, Chicago and New York.
"The two hotels (Little America and Grand America) meet two different needs, and they are two different hotels, but there are benefits from their operating under a single owner," Hodgdon said.
The Grand will have a full-service restaurant with a "Mediterranean, Italian cuisine" (it is yet to be named) and a specialty restaurant for lunch and dinner (also yet to be named) that will open later. It has 75,000 square feet of meeting space, including a 24,000-square-foot Grand Ballroom with 9,000 square feet of non-public "pre-meeting" space. There is also an Imperial Ballroom, a Grand Salon and another four salons on the third floor, 14 smaller meeting rooms and two executive board rooms.
The three-quarter acre outdoor Center Courtyard will have gardens and a fountain, and there will be swimming pools, spas, six shops, personalized concierge service, five different types of food service, beauty salons, manicure rooms, massage rooms, gyms . . . it's like a small city unto itself.
E-mail: max@desnews.com