On May 15, 2025, a 22-story hotel opened on the Chula Vista bayfront. The Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center cost $1.3 billion to build, took three years of construction, and became the largest hotel in California the moment it opened its doors. One year later, it's hard to overstate how much the property has changed the South Bay.
The Numbers
1,600 rooms and suites. 22 stories. 12 restaurants, from fine dining to poolside tacos. A 4.25-acre waterpark with slides, a lazy river, a wave pool, and cabanas. 477,000 square feet of event and convention space, including four ballrooms and 67 breakout rooms. It's the sixth Gaylord Hotels property in the Marriott portfolio and the first one on the West Coast.
The convention center alone is the largest hotel-attached event space in California. That distinction has already pulled major conferences and corporate events to Chula Vista that would have gone to Anaheim or Los Angeles in previous years.
DC Universe Summer Event
Starting June 20 and running through August 16, 2026, the Gaylord Pacific is hosting a DC superhero experience in partnership with Warner Bros. The event includes interactive experiences, challenges, and live performances featuring characters from across the DC universe. Overnight guests get exclusive access to nighttime events and extended programming. It's the kind of destination event that family travel blogs and social media will cover heavily through the summer.
What It Means for the South Bay
Before Gaylord Pacific, Chula Vista's hotel options ran from the Best Western to the Hampton Inn in Eastlake to the Residence Inn. Good hotels, all of them. But none of them were pulling convention traffic or putting Chula Vista on the destination map. The Gaylord does both. Marriott's projections at opening called for more than 4,000 permanent on-site jobs when fully operational, with ripple effects for nearby restaurants, retail, and entertainment businesses.
The resort sits at 1000 H Street, overlooking San Diego Bay and the Chula Vista Marina. It's seven miles from downtown San Diego and accessible by trolley, with a station about half a mile from the hotel. Guests who stay at the Gaylord and explore the area can hit Living Coast Discovery Center, Sesame Place San Diego, or walk to the bayfront parks without getting back in a car.
The Relache Spa has also opened inside the resort, offering full spa services with bay views. The 7,500-square-foot fitness center and on-site bike rentals round out the amenities for guests who want to get outside.
A year in, the construction cranes around the Gaylord have been replaced by foot traffic. The bayfront is busier than it's been in decades, and the hotel is the reason. What happens in year two, with Harbor Park expanding right outside and new dining and retail coming to the waterfront, should make the South Bay even harder to ignore.
