Bob Olson

It wasn’t too long ago — about a decade, when Orange County was picking up steam and leading Southern California in recovery the Great Financial Crisis — that Olson was making handsome returns with a development pipeline of mid-tier Marriott hotels everywhere from the Irvine Spectrum to Maui and an occasional outlier such as the Pasea Hotel & Spa in Huntington Beach.

What a difference a decade makes, with the same Olson now working well upscale in the wake of the pandemic. Olson these days is busy adding to the Lido House hotel he developed, built and owns in Newport Beach. He plans to put five cottages next door, on the site of a defunct fire station, with a $1,700 per night price tag for the high-end beachy feel.

Olson will be worth watching this year as he takes another turn in Dana Point, with plans to put $160 million into two hotels — one called Dana House, which looks to build on the Lido House approach to beachfront chic with a hipster version, and another called Surf Lodge, with a laid-back, similarly hipster feel.

He’s already cleared a major hurdle by getting approval from the California Coastal Commission, and Olson is moving forward as one of three developers in the joint-venture Dana Point Harbor Partners. But the outfit that will have to work through bureaucracy given their work all comes under the heading of revitalization of the city’s harbor, which is owned by the County of Orange.

— Jerry Sullivan