HOT TOPICS 2-27-2008

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Coming in 2009 to Park City, Utah, is a new addition to the Waldorf=Astoria Collection. Part of the Canyons Resort, the 197-room Dakota Mountain Lodge, Waldorf=Astoria Collection, will feature a 20,000-square-foot Golden Door Spa, 15,000 square feet of meeting space and several screening rooms to attract showings during the Sundance Film Festival. A second phase, scheduled to begin later this year, will add another 137 rooms in 65 condominiums. Construction on a golf course surrounding the property starts this summer.

A W Hotel is being built in Marrakech, Morocco. To open by mid-2010, the W Marrakech will have 150 rooms and 68 villas. The property will be part of the Al Maaden Resort, a mixed-use luxury development that, when finished, will offer an 18-hole golf course, among other diversions. The first W in North Africa, the hotel will have more than 10,000 square feet of meeting space, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a fitness center and a spa.

Harcourt Developments, which owns the shuttered, hurricane-damaged Royal Oasis Resort on Grand Bahama Island, has finalized a management deal with casino operator Foxwoods Development Co., an arm of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and owner of the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut. The Royal Oasis has been closed since September 2004 after being hit by hurricanes Frances and Jeanne. Though renovations have not yet begun and no timetable has yet been set, there are plans to refurbish and expand the property into a 650-room hotel with a casino, an unspecified amount of meeting space, a spa, a fitness center, restaurants and more. The resort's two golf courses also will be redone.

Palms Place, a Las Vegas hotel, condo and spa, opens this Friday. The 599 suites feature 42-inch plasma televisions, jetted tubs, fully equipped kitchens, and private balconies with skyline and mountain views. The 50,000-square-foot spa will include the first hammam (a Turkish-style bathhouse) in Las Vegas. Also on site will be a restaurant and lounge by restaurateur Kerry Simon; a salon; a business center; and an enclosed, moving walkway connected to the Palms Casino Resort.

Tim Zagat, publisher of the numerous Zagat Survey guides, has been named interim chairman of NYC & Company, New York City's convention and visitors bureau, following last week's resignation of Jonathan Tisch. A search for a permanent replacement is under way; a candidate will be selected in May during the bureau's annual board meeting.

The 252-room Princeville Resort on the Hawaiian island of Kauai will close on Sept. 19 for a multimillion-dollar renovation. The resort will reopen on April 19, 2009, as the St. Regis Resort, Princeville, Hawaii's first property to bear the St. Regis name. Guests with reservations at the property during the renovation will be relocated to a sister property in Starwood's Hawaii collection.

A $30 million renovation has begun at the 1,010-room Parc 55 Hotel San Francisco. All guest rooms, the lobby area and Club Level facilities (occupying the hotel's top six floors) will be redone during the project, and the property's meeting and event space will be increased to nearly 30,000 square feet. Completion is expected later this year. Also in the city, the 550-room InterContinental San Francisco opens tomorrow adjacent to the 300,000-square-foot Moscone West Convention Center. Amenities include a 10-room spa, an indoor heated pool, a fitness center, and two dining options, the Luce Restaurant and Bar 888. The hotel's 43,000 square feet of function space includes two ballrooms and 21 meeting rooms, ranging from 400 to 1,600 square feet.