A Cupertino hotel that would have provided millions of dollars for the city is no longer in the pipeline, as the hospitality sector continues to struggle post pandemic.
Los Altos-based De Anza Properties has pulled its 7-story De Anza Hotel project at 10931 N. De Anza Blvd. It would have replaced the existing Goodyear Auto Service store with a 155-room hotel on 1.29 acres, complete with a restaurant, shuttle service and rooftop bar. It’s unclear if Goodyear will stay.
The hotel had been in the works for about four years, and a De Anza Properties representative told San José Spotlight the developer is still interested. But it’s a matter of timing and the pressure to comply with stringent city regulations.
Cupertino resident Claudio Bono has been in the hospitality industry for more than two decades and is managing director of the Cupertino Hotel, which sits next to the De Anza Hotel site. He said Cupertino’s hotel sector is still struggling to return to pre-pandemic occupancy because tech employees at large companies such as Apple are partially working from home and limiting business travel. Bono said the Cupertino Hotel, which De Anza Properties also owns, is often only 65% full.
That, coupled with inflation straining hotel budgets, has led Bono to travel abroad to attract tourists and businesses to Cupertino.
“The hospitality industry is truly the very last industry to recover (from the pandemic), and we have no federal help in any way, shape or form,” he told San José Spotlight.
The Cupertino City Council granted De Anza Properties an extension last April to complete the project by April 2028. It would have brought $1 million in hotel occupancy and property taxes to Cupertino annually. The city expects financial uncertainty in the coming years largely due to a loss in Apple sales tax.
Councilmember R “Ray” Wang said the city needs to form an economic development commission to lure big tech and manufacturing companies to work in Cupertino to boost the economy. He said the project will be great for the city once there are better economic conditions that make it viable.
“I really hope that (the developers) don’t give up on it,” Wang told San José Spotlight.
Other hotels in the city are struggling too. Aloft Cupertino defaulted on a roughly $34 million loan, according to the Mercury News, and is facing foreclosure. The hotel is a few blocks away from Apple’s headquarters. Shashi Group, owner of Aloft Cupertino, did not respond to a request for comment.
Deborah Feng, CEO of the Cupertino Chamber of Commerce, said the success or failure of hotels affects foot traffic for local businesses. She said the De Anza Hotel would have been beneficial, but understands the need to wait.
Feng said the chamber wants to draw tourists in because the city has so much to offer, including local wineries.
“We just want to have healthy revenues going into the city,” she told San José Spotlight. “We’re interested in making sure that people still view Cupertino as a fun place, that there’s a lot of different activities, great open space.”
Bono said there needs to be an emphasis on tourism citywide, in addition to a focus on business.
“Everyone in the world uses Apple or knows Apple, but no one knows about Cupertino,” he said. “The obstacle that we have is that we’re not LA, New York or San Francisco where cities are given a budget for tourism, for representation.”
Contact Annalise Freimarck at [email protected] or follow @annalise_ellen on X.
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