San Diego hospitality group CH Projects on Tuesday said that it will open its second hotel, Baby Grand in Coronado, in early 2025.
The former La Avenida Inn site, across from the Hotel Del Coronado, will be the first hotel of its kind in two decades in one of San Diego’s most popular destinations.
The $17 million project, by award-winning Brooklyn firm Post Company, will feature 31 rooms and three new restaurant concepts. The design, officials said in a news release, “will thematically reference the area’s coastal setting (and) CH Projects’ signature maximalism.”
CH Projects is behind several San Diego restaurant and bar destinations, including Morning Glory, Youngblood and Born & Raised, as well as North Park’s Lafayette Hotel and Club, the team’s first hotel project.
“We wanted to create a hi-lo gathering place that reflects the island’s storied reputation as a getaway gem of the Southern California coast, while also serving as a social hub and neighborhood amenity for our neighbors,” said Arsalun Tafazoli, CH Projects’ founder.
The hotel will feature a 6,000-square-foot al fresco entryway with a to-be-announced bar and dining concept, which will emphasize lush overgrown landscaping, exaggerated rock formations and sculptural water features. Two additional concepts include an oyster bar and an omakase venue.
In the rooms, a massive pearlescent clamshell bed will sit in front of scenic wallpaper with mirrored oversized minibars that open to reveal bronze and red glass and decor that will include collected objects, art, sculpture and antiques. The bathrooms will feature cut-stone floors, marble washstands and freestanding bathtubs.
Outside the rooms, a one-time parking lot has been transformed into a jungle, with palm trees, flora and climbing flowering vines, which will be home to an unannounced all-day restaurant concept offering fine dining. Other features: a two-story waterfall and tented bars.
The lobby, visualized as “a jewel box of art, ephemera and sculpture” will offer “a warm welcome to the world of Baby Grand,” officials said. The planned oyster bar and lounge is based on “cocktail lounges of the late ’50s while simultaneously evoking (the) mirrored closet of a 1980s Versace loft.”
