Santa Monica’s Le Merigot Hotel Set To Open After 12 Years In Making

Mirror staff

  In the works for 12 years, in various iterations, Le Merigot Hotel on Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica is nearing completion and will open sometime in September.
  Maguire Thomas, major Los Angeles developers, bought the property, which overlooks the ocean, in 1987 and received the requisite approvals from the City in 1989, a few months before voters approved Proposition S which banned further hotel development on the beach.
  Work on the new hotel began soon thereafter, but stopped shortly and the site remained dormant until 1996 when it was bought by Columbia Sussex, which is building the $50 million nine-story, 175-room Le Merigot.
  Columbia Sussex is a private company based in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, which owns and operates other hotels in the U.S. and the Caribbean. Sig K. Ortloff in general manager. Renee Spingola is Director of Sales and Marketing.
   Le Merigot has nine meeting rooms, the largest of which will accommodate 140 people. It also has two restaurants: the Cafe Promenade, which serves casual California cuisine, and Cezanne, which specializes in French cuisine with an Asian influence.
   The guest rooms wrap around a courtyard with a swimming pool, spa, fountains and outdoor gym. Room rates will range from $299 to $545.
   Le Merigot is immediately south of Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel and a block north of Shutters At the Beach, which is now remaking the former Pritikin Longevity Center into a 129-room hotel, the Casa del Mar.
   Rising directly across Appian Way from Le Merigot, between it and the beach, is the eight-story Sea Castle apartment building. It replaces the old Sea Castle which was damaged by the 1994 Northridge earthquake, further damaged by a fire and ultimately torn down.
   Work on the new Sea Castle is proceeding very rapidly, but, as its presence was always a factor in the hotel’s design and layout, Le Merigot’s sightlines have been oriented away from the building.