Hotel set to break ground in Town Center this week

This graphic from the developer's base-4.com website shows the proposed layout of the Fairfield Inn & Suites in Menifee.

By Doug Spoon, Editor

Groundbreaking for the Krikorian theater and entertainment complex is still a few weeks away, according to city sources, but another major project will begin construction this week in Menifee Town Center.

The project team for a Marriott Fairfield Inn & Suites hotel, first approved by the City Council in 2017, has a grading permit and is expected to have shovels in the ground in the next few days, said Gina Gonzalez, economic development director for the City of Menifee. The hotel will have 99 rooms, a pool, breakfast dining area and conference space for up to 300 people.

The Fairfield Inn is expected to give Menifee the kind of hotel and conference center that will make the city more competitive with surrounding cities in providing quality tourist accomodations and a large meeting space for residents and business executives. Gonzalez says it’s just one part of a development plan that will boost Menifee’s economic status.

"The Fairfield Inn & Suites is just the beginning of Menifee’s hospitality coming in," said Gonzalez about the hotel, which includes 4,000 square feet of meeting space. "With the incoming civil courthouse starting next spring and entertainment complex starting in a few weeks, Menifee has back roads to wine country, a short distance to four lakes, and added conference/event meeting space ... This is one of the most requested amenities in the city."

The hotel will be located at the front of the Menifee Town Center on Newport Road, on the east side of Town Center Drive at the main entrance to the complex. The Krikorian entertainment complex, which will include 12 theater screens, a bowling alley and arcade, will be located across the street on the west side of the main entrance.

The County courthouse was delayed in its arrival, but Gonzalez now expects it to arrive in the next year. That facility, which will provide family law services but will not handle criminal cases, will be part of a civic center that will one day include a new City Hall. Until funds for that facility are available, the City of Menifee will continue to conduct business out of the leased building that staff recently moved into on Haun Road.

As part of a revenue sharing deal to seal the deal with the development company, the City will pay to the company 50 percent of hotel room tax revenues on a quarterly basis up to a total of $1 million or for 10 years, whichever comes first.

Gonzalez said this hotel prototype does not normally include conference space – an amenity that city officials definitely wanted. The revenue sharing plan "helped the developer leverage the additions," she said.

There is no revenue sharing plan with Krikorian, Gonzalez confirmed. City Manager Armando Villa told Menifee 24/7 last December that a revenue sharing plan discussed previously was taken off the table.