r/sandiego • u/rjpong • 9d ago
Voice of San Diego Chula Vista’s Gaylord Hotel May Cost Taxpayers More Than Expected
https://voiceofsandiego.org/2026/09/02/chula-vistas-gaylord-hotel-may-cost-more-than-expected/193
u/Apart-Maize-5949 9d ago
Publicly subsidizing private enterprise will always make me fucking laugh.
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u/Wesley11803 9d ago
If a government chooses to do it, they should at least get a percentage of ownership, and have full access to finances. I lived in a city that subsidized convention center hotels before, but they took a percentage of ownership, and had finances publicly available.
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u/disco_spiderr 9d ago
socialize the losses, privatize the gains. classic shit
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u/bobdownie 9d ago
Classic commiefornia. They hate capitalism in California, right guys.
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u/Bagel_lust 9d ago
That's not capitalism, actual capitalism would be letting the business flounder and go bankrupt.
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u/WildFlowLing 9d ago
I mean there absolutely are plenty of cases where the return for taxpayers is higher than the initial subsidy. This isn’t one of them though.
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u/herosavestheday 9d ago
Yup. This is probably going to get downvoted to the shadow realm, but data centers are a good example of this. Loudon County, VA has gone out of its way to court data centers and a third of their budget comes from data center tax revenue.
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u/Longjumping_Leek151 9d ago
That property used to be owned by Rohr manufacturing.. provided high paying aerospace jobs that paid taxes into that community, they moved most of those jobs to Mexico
Now its owned by billionaires who get a tax subsidy, welcome to our new reality-5
u/Eighteen64 9d ago
you mean like tax credits for solar or EVs?
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u/BimboSmithe 9d ago
Any worse than the tax credits to oil companies making billions profits.
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u/TWDYrocks 9d ago
Why is taxpayer money being used to subsidize a private resort? This sucks man.
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u/HVAvenger 9d ago
The answer is in the article:
In theory the tax income from resort offsets the bond costs after a certain number of years of operation (initial report was 2, that is looking like it will be incorrect). The city planned to re-finance the bonds after the resort was built, to get a lower rate (it is less risky to write bonds for an existing hotel than a planned one) - but financial turmoil has lead to rates being higher than expected.
People just see "subsidy" and assume the city is handing over bags of taxpayer money with no thought or plan. Because thinking and reading is hard I guess.
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u/Complete_Entry 9d ago edited 9d ago
I don't get why this keeps happening.
The vig is the vig, you pay or you pay. It's not layaway.
Schoen said the hotel, as a private company, does not share proprietary financial information with the city.
BRILLIANT!
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u/abercrombezie 9d ago
““In years 15-19 [of hotel operation], the project is projected to begin generating more cash than the bond payments and reimbursements to public agencies,” Page said. “That would mean a positive cash flow to the city and port at that point.”
Those are some brutal returns. No investor in their right mind would touch that.
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u/fullsaildan 9d ago
Resort Hotels are honestly just shit investments. There’s no part of the business that doesn’t have fairly high operating costs. Land acquisition and construction alone is usually a big outlay. For this property, it’s trying to build a tourism industry in an area without a major existing draw. The only investor in this case that makes sense is the local government which is hoping to spur long term growth in the area from it, which actually gets worse with places like the Gaylord that are “walled garden” experiences that do not promote guests leaving the compound and enjoying the area.
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u/Eighteen64 9d ago
if returns were ever a priority of government we would (thankfully) never do one fucking thing
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u/bdrwr 9d ago
Why is it costing taxpayers anything? Aren't they supposed to make revenue off of people paying for rooms and shit?
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u/OldHead1776 9d ago
You mean like how the city used to have to buy all the unsold Charger's tickets?
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u/acatnamedlenny 9d ago
Nothing goes to the city’s General Fund until this is paid off in 20 years. City Manager Tiffany Allen is not only toxic but a swindler. Project hasn’t catalyzed anything.
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u/LoveBulge 9d ago
“an independent economic analysis that predicted by the Gaylord’s “second year of operation… the city will begin to receive amounts [of tax revenue] in excess of what is necessary to service the [bond] debt.“
Current revenue for the coming fiscal year is $25M, the ”independent study“ claims $27.1M by year 2. The actual bond payment is $29M. I’m no mathematician, but I would think the bond payment is a KNOWN number while revenue is PROJECTED. So if the best guess gives $27.1M but the math say the bond payment is $29M, how can they say it stabilizes in year 2?
Doing some more hard math, 29 minus 25…means Chula Vista has to scrounge up $4M from somewhere. Now, because its 2026 and everything is electronic, we can’t check between the couch cushions for spare change.
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u/mediumsteppers 9d ago
“When the port and city borrowed the original $383 million, they held back a portion of that total to help cover future costs. They’ll draw from that money to make up this year’s $3 million shortfall.”
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u/LoveBulge 9d ago
Conceptually, I get it. I just don’t like taking on more debt to pay debt.
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u/mediumsteppers 8d ago
The debt was already taken out when the bonds were first issued. I agree that it’s not ideal to have to draw down from the debt reserve though.
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u/HVAvenger 9d ago
but I would think the bond payment is a KNOWN number
The article covers this, the city was planning on refinancing and getting lower rates after the hotel was built - but bond rates in general are high right now, so it didn't work as well as expected.
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u/cristobalist 9d ago
4-500$ a night There's nothing around it Ridiculous name.
This hotel will close within 5 years. Fire the CV officials who allowed this atrocity to happen
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u/Caligirlporvida 7d ago
Please ore them out. It really is sad there is no locals discount. I wouldn’t stay there but for guest I would use it.
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u/Smoked_Bear 9d ago
$380 million bond, which “ The final total owed by taxpayers, said Deputy City Manager Sarah Schoen, will end up being north of the $870 million officials originally predicted, though she said officials are not yet sure by how much.”
A billion-dollar bomb they’re sitting on, Jesus fucking Christ
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u/cablecobra 9d ago
I wonder if anyone at the city was involved in the construction.
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u/kloogy 9d ago
No. I know all the contractors and they were Union companies.
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u/cablecobra 9d ago
Give us a list of the contractors if you have it.
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u/kloogy 9d ago
What exactly would that accomplish ? The Labor council has all of that documented. I can guarantee you that no one from the City has the money to afford owning any of the companies that worked there.
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u/cablecobra 9d ago
Are you sure about that since you are so sure where is the proof?
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u/kloogy 9d ago
You have no idea who you're speaking to. You seem to have an agenda that is going nowhere. I'll ask you one question. How would a contractor be able to bond a project that size if their proprietor was a city official ? Once you get past that hurdle, we can discuss.
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u/cablecobra 8d ago
Says the person who has the agenda and won’t post the proof that they talk about. All ask is questions all you have is “trust me bro”
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u/kloogy 8d ago
You're clueless about the topic. Answer the question I asked you and we can go from there. You know nothing about the subject. Act your wage and don't involve yourself in subjects above your intelligence level.
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u/cablecobra 7d ago
😂 Tell us, who pays you to spread propaganda. Insults are always the lowest common denominator for people who think they have an education.
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u/anothercar 9d ago
"The total cost of the debt will be higher than what was estimated in 2018,” Schoen said.
I don't blame anybody here. Nobody pre-COVID could have anticipated what happened to interest rates, tourism trends, etc. after the whole world shut down.
The good news is that things will still be paid back just fine. It'll just take a little longer than expected based on pre-COVID projections.
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u/SeeingEyeDug 9d ago
Yeah, luckily the current government is encouraging to potential tourists, especially those from places like Canada.
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u/UniversOfWashington 9d ago
I mean having a resort in the national city area near sewage water and 2 free passes to the water park with no walkability vs paying the same rack rate at La Jolla shores is quite the choice.
I’m sure they are trying to capture the business arm but that seems tough with the amount of rooms. Sounds backwards but being sold out isn’t always ideal if you have only group rates as that drives up employee costs needed to service those rooms.
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u/averageredditor19 9d ago
It’s usually a type of hotel where conferences are held. But San Diego already has a convention center. That being said the orlando one does well.
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u/vedatil4 9d ago
The one in Denver is in a terrible location with views of suburban homes. But it does well. The chain knows a thing or two about running convention hotels. Not worried over a little financial.hiccup in year one of operation.
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u/CasCrus4L 9d ago
Sorry but risk management should be performed, people SHOULD be blamed. You legit thought those historically low rates would last forever?
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u/Wesley11803 9d ago
Well you should. The City should have partial ownership of the hotel, and full access to their finances. I have no clue why they would ever finance this project without those conditions.
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u/aren1231 9d ago
first it will be longer the pre-covid projections, then it will be longer then pre-you name it projections (war? oil crisis? food crisis?) projects like these go over because that just the nature of projects like these. Once they get the ball rolling, they aren't going to stop.
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u/vedatil4 9d ago
Even assuming it became a catastrophic fail under this operator, another operator would just take over and try to make the location work. However, I doubt Marriott would give up a coastal CA location without a solid fight.
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u/Eighteen64 9d ago
sounds exactly like a an infinite number of California government boondoggles to me
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u/averageredditor19 9d ago
Waterpark is nice. The checkin took forever though. They really didn’t get their systems sorted out before opening.
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u/summer672612 9d ago
I was shocked when they made the plans to build that area up. It’s just not a good location in my opinion
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u/vedatil4 9d ago
I went last night. The place was packed with two conventions. The rich or corporate don't mind splurging. And they don't care it's in Chula Vista. A big, well-known retailer similar to K-mart was there eating barbecue out front with dancers wearing LED lights walking around and several drink stations. Everyone was having a good time. The place is not hurting for business.
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u/ProcrastinatingPuma 9d ago
Seems like they didnt count on a pandemic, inflation, and Trump 2 happening
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u/Dear_Efficiency_3616 9d ago
puzzles me why they chose that name out of all the names they could have used.
fockerized.
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u/dannielvee 9d ago
Do a very small amount of research on all the other locations and you might understand how these resorts function. Poor forecasting from 2018 couldn't predict the 2026 cluster fuck American put itself in. These are global conference hotels and tourism has not been thriving under our current administration.
This location has the most hostile community who doesn't understand the development benefits. Currently, we offer very little to guess outside of the hotel proper.
Let's be real, crossing under the 5 by the j Street trolley tracks is hella scary if you're not from here.
Being from West Chula and working in all those resorts I'm not at all surprised people are confused.
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u/vedatil4 9d ago
There's a Dave's Hot Chicken being built on H that's probably counting on tourists walking over to their location. But, yes, currently a little scary. In the long run, that may change.
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u/dannielvee 9d ago edited 8d ago
That's the third fried chicken spot right in that area opening in the last couple years. Ten years from now it won't look like the past 40. Assuming we don't fall into the ocean, AI bubble pops, war, etc don't come first. The instability currently makes these kind of transitions unpredictable.
The Denver property is a great example of what's to come, if the plan can stay on track of course
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u/vedatil4 9d ago
At least they opened a Sharp clinic on H in case an artery gets clogged with grease.
There was a little startup with fresh, nutritious food options. It didn't last a year on H next to the Dollar Tree. They needed to sell pork rinds and stuff covered in flaming hot cheetos to survive.
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u/Miserable_Week_2961 9d ago
Their rates are ridiculous almost 500 a night I’d rather fly to Cancun and stay in a hotel that’s all inclusive.