09/19/91

CONTACT: Stanford University News Service (650) 723-2558

Plans dropped for Westin Hotel on Stanford campus

STANFORD -- Stanford University will continue to seek a high-quality conference hotel on campus but has ended negotiations with the Westin Hotel Co., the university announced Thursday, Sept. 19.

The hotel had been proposed for a 21-acre site at the intersection of Interstate 280 and Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park.

In a Sept. 18 letter to Jan Dolan, Menlo Park city manager, Niel Davidson, Stanford director of real estate development, informed her and the city council that an agreement with Westin has expired and will not be renewed.

"Changes in the real estate market appear to have caused the company to suggest a lesser project than it had proposed in 1989," Davidson wrote.

"We regretfully concluded that we could not accept the reduced version, which would have altered several valuable features of the hotel."

Davidson said that the university will continue to pursue the development of a "high-quality hotel" on the site.

Westin proposed a 387-room conference hotel in 1988, then postponed further action until the city completed the revision of its General Plan. In 1989, Westin cut the number of rooms from 387 to 350.

The proposed hotel was designed by the award-winning architectural firm of Bull, Stockwell and Allen, and was to reflect traditional architectural themes in the Menlo Park area. It was to have included two restaurants, a ballroom, extensive meeting facilities and a variety of recreational amenities.

According to the Environmental Impact Report prepared for the 1989 project, the hotel would have generated $895,000 a year in revenues to the city of Menlo Park.

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