Two large hotels planned for SLO airport area

April 2, 2019

A developer has submitted initial plans to the city of SLO for building two hotels next to San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport, which if built, would become the first lodging constructed beside the airport. [Cal Coast Times]

Templeton-based Sunsmit LLC and applicant Sanjay Ganpule are proposing a pair of three-story hotels, each 45 feet tall, on a five-acre site by Highway 227 and Aero Drive near the airport parking lot. One hotel, to be located at 950 Aero Drive, would have 100 rooms, and the other, located at 990 Aero Drive, would have 118 rooms.

Plans call for the two hotels to have outdoor patio and dining areas, meeting space, fitness rooms, breakfast areas and hotel guest bars. The larger hotel would also have a 490-square-foot pool. The amenities would only be available to guests and not the public.

Project planning is currently in the early stages. At the earliest, the developer hopes to break ground by late spring or mid-summer in 2020.

Previously, developer Hamish Marshall’s WestPac Investments proposed a hotel at the site of the new project. Plans fell through amid the recession a decade ago, and the hotel was never built.

In recent years, the San Luis Obispo airport has added flight routes, as well as a new terminal. On Tuesday, American Airlines will kick off year-round service between SLO and the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.