New Orleans, La.—HRI Lodging (HRIL) has been selected by ownership to manage the historic Crowne Plaza San Marcos Golf Resort in Chandler, Ariz.
Interwest Capital acquired the property in January of last year and completed $8.5 million in renovations in the fourth quarter of 2013. The resort will be HRI Lodging’s first hotel under the InterContinental Hotels Group flag and brings HRI Lodging’s total portfolio of hotels to 17.
HRI Lodging now manages three of Interwest Capital’s properties, including the Hyatt Place New Orleans/Convention Center and the historic Hampton Inn and Suites Birmingham-Downtown-Tutwiler.
“This resort’s rich history represents a great fit to our portfolio of historic branded and boutique hotels,” Gary Gutierrez, president of HRI Lodging. “We look forward to welcoming our new associates to the HRI Lodging family and bringing the Crowne Plaza San Marcos resort to the highest standards of service all our properties share.”
Dr. Alexander J. Chandler founded the town that bears his name southeast of Phoenix in 1912 and constructed the San Marcos there as part of a master design to create a totally planned community. Arthur Bennett Benton, an architect from Southern California, designed the resort in the Mission Revival Design. One of the identifying design features of the resort was the pergolas that framed the building and formed a shady passageway.
The San Marcos opened for business in 1913 with full resort amenities, including golf, tennis, horseback riding, and polo. Grace Perley Robinson managed the property, and her husband, Will H. Robinson, designed and built the resort’s 100-acre golf course in 1913. One year later, the course was seeded with Bermuda grass and became the first grass golf course in Arizona. At the time of its opening, the resort offered 35 guestrooms, a lobby, dining room, ballroom, retail shops, and administrative offices.
Today, the Crowne Plaza San Marcos Golf Resort offers 248 rooms and more than 35,000 square feet of flexible meeting and event space. Amenities include on-site dining, an outdoor pool, a 24-hour business center, a fitness center, and a golf pro shop. The property’s USGA championship golf course features 18 holes, complete with a driving range. The course will undergo $3.5 million in renovations during the summer of 2014.
