SANTA CRUZ — More than 100 community members packed within the arched entryway of the newly built La Bahia Hotel and Spa across from Main Beach in Santa Cruz on a sunny Wednesday to get a sneak peek and celebrate the luxury hotel’s imminent opening early next month.

“It’s so exciting,” said Ensemble Corporate Marketing Manager Olivia Hill. “We still have some last finishing touches to put on it but we’re basically at the finish line.”

The hotel and spa, which began construction nearly three years ago, will begin taking reservations Sept. 8. La Bahia Hotel and Spa contains 155 luxury guest rooms, which include 29 suites, 13,000 square feet of gathering space, multiple restaurants, a fitness center and a full-service rooftop spa with a sauna that overlooks the ocean, among other amenities.

Members of Ensemble Investments, Swenson Builders and the Santa Cruz Seaside Co. cut the ribbon alongside Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley at the entrance of the newly built La Bahia Hotel and Spa at a ceremony Wednesday. (Aric Sleeper – Santa Cruz Sentinel) 

“The rooms are stunning,” said Hill. “We have a lot of fun amenities for guests that tie in the local partnerships that we’ve built. Those partnerships have been a big part of the project to incorporate the community and many of the employees are Santa Cruz locals too. We have partnerships with the Penny Ice Creamery and Cat and Cloud Coffee, which is really exciting.”

The hotel features two restaurants open to the general public: High Tide, which is fine dining and open for dinner only, and Low Tide, which is a more casual restaurant that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. The hotel boasts six bars in total, with a Champagne bar called Pearl in the hotel lobby that is also open to the public.

Before the ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday, the Sentinel caught up with Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley, who was excited about the tax revenue that the hotel will bring into the city once it opens.

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“For the city, in terms of sales tax and transient occupancy tax, it’s as if the voters approved an eighth of a cent sales tax increase permanently just by opening this,” said Keeley. “I also think that this is a moment of additional change in the city. Clearly, this is an upscale hotel. That is not a bad thing. It’s a good thing. We need a range of visitor-serving accommodations, from small motels to luxury hotels and everything in between. That way we expand who we are as a market, and I think that’s good for the city.”

Keeley said that he was glad that the old bell tower from the original building was incorporated into the final design, which was commended by many in attendance at the ribbon-cutting, including former director of Save Our Shores and the O’Neill Sea Odyssey, Dan Haifley.

More than 100 community members were given a sneak preview of the newly built La Bahia Hotel and Spa in Santa Cruz on Wednesday. (Aric Sleeper – Santa Cruz Sentinel) 

“I think that this hotel is really going to change the complexion of the city and the beach area,” said Haifley. “It’s going to bring in more revenue and it’s very beautifully done. I think it’s great.”

Since the early 1980s, La Bahia Apartments, or as it was originally named when it was built in 1926, the Casa del Rey Apartments, has had numerous rehabilitation projects proposed over the decades, but sat in limbo until the hotel project was made a reality, according to Santa Cruz Seaside Co. President Karl Rice, who spoke before the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday.

“To say that this day has been a long time in the making and is beyond overdue is an understatement of epic proportions,” said Rice. “For those of you who have been in Santa Cruz for any meaningful length of time, I suspect that you have at least some sense of the story, or as I like to think of it, the saga that is La Bahia.”

Rice mentioned that Santa Cruz Seaside Co. owned the property originally and sold it in the 1940s for unknown reasons but then purchased it again in 1984 with the goal of developing a world-class hotel.

“So it has only taken us 41 years to achieve our goal,” said Rice. “Better late than never.”

He thanked the teams at Ensemble Investments and Swenson Builders, which developed and built the hotel, respectively, and everyone who helped make it a reality.

“There are too many people to thank individually,” said Rice. “To anyone and everyone who has touched this project literally over the last 40 years, your efforts are very much appreciated, and you should feel proud, as I do, about what we have achieved here.”

Following the ribbon-cutting, attendees flooded into the hotel’s lobby to sip complimentary Champagne before heading off in small groups to tour the building. Among the more than 100 community members marveling at the inside of the extravagant structure were Santa Cruz City Councilmember Renee Golder and Vice Mayor Shebreh-Kalantari-Johnson.

“I have been a behind-the-scenes supporter of this project since 2013 when I was on the public safety task force,” said Golder. “It’s been in need of redevelopment for so many decades and it’s in such a prime position that it was almost an attractive nuisance. And now having it be an iconic, beautiful hotel will bring in visitors of all income levels to enjoy Santa Cruz in a way that they hadn’t before. And I think that we can all appreciate that when visitors are coming, they’re paying transient occupancy tax, visiting restaurants and retail shops and contributing to our economy in a meaningful way.”

Kalantari-Johnson said that she sees the hotel becoming another well-known draw to the city, similar to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.

“This represents more than just a hotel,” said Kalantari-Johnson. “It’s economic vitality. It’s workforce development. It’s well-being and joy. That’s what I’m really excited about. And when you think about Santa Cruz, you think about the Boardwalk, you think about the wharf and West Cliff, and this is going to be one of those other places that people are going to think about when they think about Santa Cruz for generations to come.”

For information, visit labahiahotel.com.