Back in December of 2015, the Wincome Group filed plans to build a $225 million hotel on the site of the Anabella Hotel, one of the more popular Good Neighbor Hotels near the Disneyland Resort.
Today, the final guests are checking out of the Anabella Hotel.
Next month, the Anabella will be torn down and construction will begin on what is expected to be a 634-room luxury hotel that will meet the AAA four-diamond rating.
At the time the new project was announced, the City of Anaheim was offering a significant tax incentive on new projects that meet AAA’s four-diamond rating. The company will get back 70 percent of the transient-occupancy tax, or bed tax, that guests pay at the new hotel for the next 20 years. The current bed tax is 15%.
The political climate in Anaheim has since shifted and no new projects will receive the tax reimbursement.
The unnamed Anabella project is already approved and will receive the funding, however, union interests have put forward a ballot measure that could make completing the project more difficult. Paul Sanford, asset manager for the Wincome Group is “confident that the residents will see this property as a benefit” and that the ballot measure won’t be successful.
Wincome also has approval to build a luxury hotel on the site of the Anaheim Plaza (now The Anaheim Hotel), but details have not yet been released.
The new luxury hotel on the former site of the Anabella Hotel is expected to open in 2020.
Source: Orange County Register
