New Hotel For Blacklake Golf Resort

According to the Tribune, a new hotel is possible at the Blacklake Golf Resort, in Nipomo. This would be a very good thing for the community, particularly in terms of new revenue toward the community's incorporation. The Tribune reports:

A 125-unit hotel is being planned at Blacklake Golf Resort in Nipomo.

Course owner Rob Rossi is in the initial planning stages for the hotel that would feature golf villas, traditional rooms, and banquet and wedding facilities.

Renderings of the hotel show a multi-story building constructed in a Tuscan-village style.

Rossi said he wants to submit a formal application to San Luis Obispo County planners by the end of the year. He hopes, "with a little good fortune," that the project could be approved by 2007 and the hotel could open in 2008 or 2009.

The photo above in this post is an artist's rendition of the possible hotel. The golf course owner points out that the immediate financial benefit from the hotel taxes, i.e., transient occupancy tax, would go to San Luis Obispo County. Once Nipomo incorporates into a city, those tax revenues would be kept locally here in Nipomo. In the interim, these potential tax revenues will help the Nipomo community make up the current revenue deficit required to become a city.

With Cypress Ridge Golf Course just a short distance north on the mesa, and the Woodlands course also coming on line, Blacklake is seeking to stay competitive. Nipomo could well become a golfer's mecca here on the central coast, with these three major golf destinations within just miles of each other:

The hotel is the result of several factors, Rossi said. Mainly, construction of a hotel will ensure the course stays economically viable. Without such lodging, it's more difficult to attract the golf tourist -- a necessity for making the course profitable.

Blacklake originally included condos for tourists when it was built more than 20 years ago. But over the years they were sold off as homes.

About 90,000 rounds of golf per year are played on the 27-hole golf course, Rossi said. The course earns between $3 million and $4 million a year.

Since he bought Blacklake for about $10 million in 2001, Rossi said he has "easily" put in more than $500,000 worth of capital toward improving the course.

The hotel could benefit county coffers too, Rossi said. Many of the courses' tourists -- who come from across the state and as far away as Canada -- now stay in Santa Maria, meaning Santa Barbara County keeps the transient occupancy tax.

"If we had those rooms," Rossi said, "there's no doubt we would accommodate many of them. They're already there playing golf."

Other county businesses could also profit from the hotel, Rossi said. The resort would attract families, tournaments and couples. While one family member may golf, the others would explore the Central Coast, he explained.

As public hearings are announced, I will post them on this blog.