The company behind a $1.3 billion hotel project planned for the Chula Vista bay front has pulled out of the project.
The news was hand delivered in a letter to Chula Vista’s mayor signed by Bennett Westbrook of Gaylord Entertainment.
The proposal from Gaylord Entertainment included a resort, restaurants and shops. In the end, the company could not overcome the cost of the redevelopment and decided to withdraw was the best decision for its shareholders.
The Nashville-based company was working with the city of Chula Vista and the Port of San Diego on a seaside convention center that was touted as an economic engine that would generate 6500 jobs and untold millions in tax benefits.
According to voiceofsandiego.org, Gaylord recently began planning a complex in Mesa Arizona, drawing questions about how dedicated it was to the Chula Vista project.
This isn’t the first time Gaylord has pulled out of the project. In the summer of 2007 the company announced they were ditching the project because they couldn’t come to terms with the local building and construction trades council.
Gaylord told the city that the bidding process proposed by local labor groups would add upwards of $50 million to the project’s cost.
