May 06–The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, in a Tuesday, May 6, news release posted on its Facebook page, announced plans to close the Spa Resort Hotel and its Spa & Fitness Center on July 8 to launch a “new vision” for downtown Palm Springs. The tribe said it is in the planning stages for the key downtown location.
“We are reviewing concepts and considering our options to identify the necessary steps to preserve this key landmark in downtown and rejuvenate the property around it,” tribal chairman Jeff Grubbe said in a statement.
The casino, located on a corner near the high-rise hotel, is not closing, the tribe said. The Spa Hotel, designed by an architectural team headed by Phil Koenig of Chicago that included Bill Cody and the firm Wexler and Harrison of Palm Springs, was built in 1959.
The property, establishing Palm Springs as a tourism magnet for the natural hot mineral waters it provides, has undergone multiple renovations since the 1960s. The most recent update for Spa Resort Casino in Palm Springs was a $2.1 million, 228-room and lobby refurbishment.
It was in June 2007, just before the economic downturn, when the late tribal chairman Richard Milanovich announced plans to raze and rebuild the iconic hotel property.
The crescent-shaped artist rendering for the new 10-story hotel, one that would have doubled the number of Spa rooms to 400, had the hotel facing downtown Palm Springs and featured 60,000-square-feet more of gaming space.
Around that time, the tribe also started to build the Agua Caliente Casino Resort and Spa in Rancho Mirage. Plans to build a Spa counterpart were shelved when the housing bubble burst and the Southern California economy went into a tailspin.
On Tuesday, as the local economy continues to show signs of recovery, Grubbe said the tribe is confident the location he described as a “valued cultural resource” will be a cornerstone for Palm Springs visitors for decades to come.
