By San Diego Business Journal / Nov. 2025
A former Point Loma hotel that closed in 2019 and has been vacant ever since is being redeveloped into apartments in a $23 million project by Ambient Communities and C2 Building Group.
“It struggled as a hotel in Point Loma because there are thousands of hotel rooms in Point Loma right along the water,” according to Robert Horner of Ambient Communities.
Built in 1971, the 110-room Consulate Hotel at 2901 Nimitz Blvd. is about two blocks from the waterfront and couldn’t compete, Horner said.
Ambient communities bought the hotel in February and renamed it Celeste.
Since it closed, the hotel had been used as a training ground for police to practice breaking down doors and a crash pad for vagrants, according to Horner.
“There’d been people who had broken in and were living in it illegally,” Horner said. “It was highly dilapidated. It was never a well-performing asset. It had decades of small patches and Band-Aids that added up to a lot of deferred maintenance.”
The 144,000-square-foot building was in such poor condition that it had to be gutted, with the interior rebuilt from scratch, Horner said.
“The worst parts of it are what we saw when we opened up the walls. There were cast iron pipes that were complete rusted out,” Horner said. “You could see where there had been water leaks and leaks in drain lines.”
To make room for new plumbing and wiring, Horner said that the interior walls were moved inward two-to three inches and new insulation, studs and drywall were added so the apartments would have a warmer feel replacing bare concrete.
“It’s really just a new building from the roof down,” said Jeff Cole of C2 Building Group.
“It’s going to be an awesome Class A apartment structure,” Cole said. “It’s a great example of reusing an old building and not tearing it down.”
Restoring Architecture
At six stories, the former hotel is the tallest building in Point Loma, where new buildings are subject to a 30-foot height limit, “so it’s highly desirable from a leasing standpoint, Horner said, adding that a bonus is that the site is outside of the flight path of planes taking off and landing at San Diego International Airport.
“If we were to build new, we couldn’t go over three stories,” Horner said.
Designed by Moniker Design Studio, Horner said that the exterior will be modified to make it more in keeping with the design of buildings in Liberty Station, including restoring triangular arches at the entrance that are similar to the archways that are common throughout the former military base.
“We’re kind of bringing it back to the original architecture,” Horner said.
When completed, Celeste will have 127 apartments, with 17 units and retail space added to the ground floor and 22 apartments per floor on levels two through six. The apartments will be a mix of studio and one-bedroom units. New amenities will include a pool, spa and community kitchen.
“We’re adding washers and dryers to every unit. We’re putting a kitchen in every single unit. These are things the hotel didn’t have,” Horner said.
The apartments will range from 300 square feet to 650 square feet, with monthly rents ranging from about $2,000 to $3,000, “depending on the size and location in the building,” Horner said.
“One of the main demographics is going to be young people, either finishing college or within a few years out of college,” Horner said. “It’s either a single person, two friends or a couple that will be in most of these units. I can also see some military living here.”
Hotels converted to apartments while our neighborhoods are being destroyed by Short Term Rentals.
I’m truly interested in how all these developers are coming to the conclusion that ‘young people’ all want to live in tiny boxes. My niece and her boyfriend (both military and in their early 20s, so they check several of these developers’ boxes) currently live in a tiny apartment and are about to move to something larger because they don’t want to live in a tiny apartment. I’m sure it could work for some people, but I have a feeling most who choose the tiny boxes only do so out of having no other option.
$2,000 to $3,000 is outrageous. Are young people able to afford that? Are people who can afford that going to live in those 300 to 650 square feet apartments?
I agree with you! These developers and apartment complex owners don’t seem to understand what an affordable rental price is!! A studio should be no more than $900-$1000, and a One Bedroom should be no more than $1300-$1500. These $2k and $3k and $4k rentals are outrageous and pure greed! The whole of the rental housing here is totally out of touch with reality, and something needs to be done about it.
I don’t understand the negativity here. Turning a dilapidated building into housing units that was previously doing nothing for the community as a hotel is exactly the kind of supply increase we should be supporting. This betters our community and supplies housing units without any real change to the existing neighborhood. Great project.
NIMBY is the motto of Pt Loma. But people this is a great improvement! For over 5 years this abandoned building was occupied by homeless. Was a major ” Hooker Hangout” and was trashed. Now with not a penny of taxpayer money, we have over 100 units, with parking!!! and have removed an eyesore. Thank you!!
There’s just one big problem.PARKING….
How do I get on the tenant list please
127 units, 48 parking spaces. Tough situation for the neighborhood.
Great ratio for a hotel.
This is the kind of setup the City buys, and pays top dollar.
Denny’s will see its ” hay day” again since NTC closed. Greg has a good point, and at least it’s improving an existing structure with a similar use. We will see how the pricing trends and whom it will benefit.
I don’t have a problem with turning the dilapidated old hotel into some housing. And I really like that it didn’t change the footprint of the existing site. The size and price are what I am against. For me, this project is just a continuation of more of the same, too expensive, tiny for-rent-only apartments (no ownership opportunities), which seems like what 90% of what is being built in SD are. The spokesperson mentioned they had to gut the inside of the hotel. That would have been a perfect opportunity to increase the size of the apartments so maybe a small family could live there (and not live there crammed into a studio).
Agreed. Love the general idea. They initially wanted to target students. Who would need a car most likely. Same rough price range as SDSU. But you have to figure a 1 bedroom for a couple will entail 2 jobs and 2 cars and the lunacy continues as to decapitating parking for renters. Small families aside, for every person, you need to plan for a car. As a hotel, it likely wasn’t as much. More for staff than a visitor. The practicality doesn’t matter. Make a buck, move on, and it’s renter beware.
Agree that this is a great looking remodel. The developer put some big bucks into this. At present, there is a very limited number of available street parking spaces, soon to be zero. It isn’t too far fetched to foresee the Housing Commission buying the property, with Taxpayer’s money, for their housing objectives.
Two grand for 300sf. This isn’t “news”, it’s just more of the same ol’ Developers Making Money show.
Yeah. Lots of new affordable (yes, in this market) units without construction ruining neighborhood character. Service industry employees may be able to walk or (gasp) use bike lanes to ride to work.
I wonder what it cost them per unit. Probably far less than the $500-900K per unit the city is spending on low income housing projects.