Stanford names Menlo hotel partner Stanford names Menlo hotel partner (March 23, 2005)

** Dallas-based Rosewood Hotels & Resorts plans a 120-room luxury hotel deep in the heart of venture capital country.

By Rebecca Wallace

Almanac Staff Writer

After much chatter in the community over which luxury hotelier could be lured here, Stanford University officials say they plan to team up with the Dallas-based Rosewood Hotels & Resorts.

Stanford and Rosewood officials are devising plans to build a posh 120-room hotel on a 21-acre triangle of Stanford-owned land in Menlo Park.

The site is just southeast of the Interstate 280-Sand Hill Road interchange, bounded by office development and the freeway. It's also about a mile from Stanford University and deep in the heart of venture capital country.

The plan includes a similarly sized office building on the site.

Stanford officials did not provide details, such as total square feet and number of stories.

Before anything could be built, the city of Menlo Park would have to approve it. Public hearings would be held by both the Planning Commission and the City Council.

Bill Phillips, a spokesman for the Stanford Management Co., referred to the project as a "world-class luxury lodging facility that will reflect the business ethos, landscape and historical importance of the Sand Hill Road corridor."

Palo Alto architect John C. Hill of Hill Glazier Architects is planning to design the hotel with a "low-rise design that would blend into the surrounding landscape and development," according to Stanford officials.
City action

The land would need to be rezoned for a hotel to be built, said Arlinda Heineck, Menlo Park's community development director. Currently, administrative, professional and research office uses are allowed on the site.

"There's a lot we don't really know yet about how we would design the appropriate zoning," she said. "It may also require a general plan amendment."

The project would go through both the Planning Commission, which would closely eye the buildings' design, and the City Council, Ms. Heineck said.

Currently vacant, the sloping parcel has no street address but plenty of grass.
Hotel tax

Established in 1979, Rosewood manages 12 hotels and resorts, including the Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas, a 1920s Italian Renaissance-style mansion that the Mobil Travel Guide gives five stars.

The Rosewood network also includes the Caneel Bay resort in the Virgin Islands, the King Pacific Lodge in British Columbia, and other lodgings in New York, Tokyo and Jakarta.

A luxury hotel could mean big bucks for the city of Menlo Park, a prospect that pleases officials trying to balance the budget.

In recent years, the city has gotten about a million dollars annually in transient occupancy tax from its existing hotels. Set at 10 percent of the room rate, the tax is charged to the customer and goes right into city coffers, as opposed to sales-tax revenues, which the city shares with state and county governments.

Menlo Park Mayor Mickie Winkler agreed that the hotel could be an excellent money-maker for the city. She also said it might reduce traffic in the heart of Menlo Park, because guests visiting residents on the west side of 280 wouldn't have to cut through town, as they currently do when staying in downtown hotels.

Councilman Andy Cohen, though, holds an opposite view on traffic. Because there are no office supply stores nearby, occupants of the new office building would add to traffic heading downtown, he said.

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