Construction is now under way on the first two of three planned hotels at Liberty Station, according to Joe Haeussler, vice president and director of sales for McMillin Commercial, a Corky McMillin Company.

The hotel developer, Huntington Hospitality Group, is building a 200-room Courtyard by Marriott and a 150-room Hilton Homewood Suites on 11.9 acres west of the San Diego boat channel on the north end of Liberty Station. Construction is expected to be complete by the end of 2007. Construction of the hotels also includes a piece of the waterfront esplanade, a path for walking and biking, that will connect to NTC Park on the north and to the Harbor Drive pedestrian bridge on the south, providing uninterrupted access to Spanish Landing and downtown.

Harbor Square, a 24,000-square-foot retail plaza adjacent to the hotel project, is being developed by McMillin Commercial. It features a large event plaza for public gatherings and will offer tenants, residents and hotel guests a place to dine and shop.

The hotels and Harbor Square will be adjacent to the existing 33,000-square-foot Bayside Conference Center and the historic USS Recruit – a land-based former Navy training vessel dubbed the “USS Neversail” and recently named California State Historical Landmark. Although a separate project, extensive renovations will be made by The Corky McMillin Companies to the conference center and USS Recruit in conjunction with the hotel and retail plaza development.

The hotel project is a venture between Huntington Hotel Group and The Corky McMillin Companies, which is developing the former Naval Training Center on behalf of the city of San Diego’s Redevelopment Agency. Huntington Hospitality is part of the Huntington Hotel Group. Owned and controlled by Brent Andrus and Kevin Keefer, the all-encompassing hotel company specializes in hotel development, hotel operations, financial management, and construction management. Huntington has developed over $200 million in real estate in California and Maryland over the last six years.

Liberty Station, the redevelopment of the former Naval Training Center, is expected to create more than 8,000 permanent jobs, $2.2 million in annual property tax revenue, and $875,000 in annual tax revenue set-aside for low/moderate income housing. These hotels, coupled with the 650-room future hotel across the boat channel, are expected to generate over $3.2 million of annual Transient Occupancy Tax for the city of San Diego.

The 361-acre Liberty Station community includes 125 acres of parks, open space and a boat channel; shopping villages and restaurants; a 28-acre civic, arts and cultural district; the nine-hole Sail Ho Golf Club, and six schools. Nearly 350 families now reside at Liberty Station and more than a dozen companies, with hundreds of employees, are doing business there. For more information, visit libertystation.com.

Started in 1960 as a remodeling company and custom-home builder, The Corky McMillin Companies has grown into a fully integrated real estate investment, land development and home-building company operating in the California markets of San Diego, Bakersfield, Imperial Valley, Visalia and Fresno, as well as San Antonio, Texas, and Yuma, Arizona. Specializing in move-up products for second- and third-time home buyers, the company also provides closing services, mortgage, escrow and real estate brokerage services, in San Diego and Bakersfield.