DTSJ hotel pushes back debut of new brand

The Signia by Hilton San Jose hotel will take at least another week to turn down the sheets.

The reopening of the 805-room hotel, formerly known as the Fairmont San Jose, has been delayed by supply chain woes until the last week of April, the San Jose Mercury News reported. It had been scheduled to open April 7.

“Shipping delays extended us for a couple of weeks,” said Sam Hirbod, CEO of Eagle Canyon Capital, based in San Ramon, and principal owner of the revamped hotel at 170 S Market St.

The former Fairmont fell into bankruptcy and closed its doors in March 2021, saying business shutdowns and travel restrictions from the coronavirus pandemic had ruined its bottom line.

An ownership group led by Hirbod used the bankruptcy to do more than reorganize the hotel’s crumbling finances: he also ousted hotel operator Accor Management and replaced it with Signia by Hilton.
The new Hilton-run hotel, located near the city’s convention center in Downtown San Jose, aims to offer unique dining and drinking experiences its owners hope will be a magnet for both out-of-town visitors as well as people in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area.
“We have elevated the culinary experience in the lounge, the restaurants and for banquets,” Hirbod said. “We want people to have a reason to come to the hotel for the culinary experience alone.”

The hotel is reopening in phases. The first guests will stay in the southern tower, while the rooms in the northern tower are being fully renovated. The northern tower will serve guests a few floors at a time as renovations proceed.

Its performance as the economy reopens amid a run of inflation marked by soaring gasoline prices, could be a barometer for how well the lodging market is recovering in Silicon Valley.

The Bay Area hotel market was ranked among the worst in the nation. Downtown San Jose is primarily a market for business travel and conventions, two sectors that were particularly hard hit by the pandemic.

“It will still be a little slow through 2022,” said Alan Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group. “But the return to work and businesses getting back to meetings and conventions, combined with the Hilton affiliation, should bode very well for the new Signia.”

The Signia by Hilton was originally supposed to reopen in February or March. An affiliate of BrightSpire Capital, the property’s principal lender, provided the hotel’s owner with a $185 million loan to shore up its financing.

[San Jose Mercury News] – Dana Bartholomew

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