May 31–CARLSBAD — City planners are recommending approval of a three-story, 142-room business hotel proposed for a vacant lot near near the southwestern end of McClellan-Palomar Airport.

It would be the second hotel in the 215-acre Carlsbad Airport Centre, a business and industrial park the city approved in 1982 and has modified several times since, City Planner Don Neu said Tuesday.

The project, a Home2 Suites by Hilton, would provide midlevel, extended-stay lodgings for business and leisure travelers. Launched in 2009, the Home2 Suites line is the first new brand from Hilton Worldwide in 20 years.

Hilton has opened more than 100 Home2 properties, according to the company's website, but none in California. Most are on the East Coast and in the Midwest.

The Carlsbad application "has been so far pretty straightforward," Neu said.

It includes several letters of support from neighboring businesses, he said, and there has been no opposition.

Tonight, the Carlsbad Planning Commission will consider an application for a specific plan amendment and conditional use permit for the project. The recommendation will then go to the City Council.

A marketing study prepared for the applicant — Koong Cho of Royal Hospitality Carlsbad, based in Rancho Santa Fe — says the hotel would compete with 14 existing extended-stay or similar hotels in Carlsbad, Vista and San Marcos, with two more under construction or likely to be built soon.

Together the competing hotels had "a very healthy occupancy" rate of about 85 percent in 2014, the study shows. That is expected to continue or improve, in part due to "the very strong tourist appeal" of Carlsbad and the continued expansion of Legoland.

The proposed location is a graded, 3.8-acre lot at the northeast corner of Palomar Airport Road and Palomar Oaks Way, with the entrance on Wright Place.

Carlsbad already has three other Hilton-related properties — Cape Rey, Carlsbad, on Ponto Road, just off Carlsbad Boulevard; The Hilton Garden Inn on Carlsbad Boulevard; and Homewood Suites by Hilton, on Palomar Airport Road.

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