Like any 80-year-old grand dame, Hotel San Carlos is a lady with a past.

It thrived as an air-conditioned love nest for old Hollywood glitterati. It was a backdrop for political powwows and it spent years suffering from neglect. Today, the restored landmark is a refuge for tourists and convention goers.

Hotel San Carlos will celebrate its eighth decade this week.

"It's one of those buildings that has sort of been a kind of litmus of the times, because it's right on 'main street' Phoenix," said Phoenix consultant Scott Jacobson, who once co-owned the hotel's restaurant when it was a popular 1980s political haunt.

On Sunday, the 1928 building will be in party mode, said its 83-year-old owner, Greg Melikian.

Copper Door Steakhouse & Saloon, the hotel restaurant, will have live jazz and 80-cent drink specials. Melikian and docents will offer free hotel tours on Sunday. During the rest of the month, more free groups tours are available by appointment, Melikian said.

"This was Phoenix's first high-rise, air-conditioned, elevator building," said Melikian, who loves to share hotel lore about celebrity guests such as Mae West, Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy and Marilyn Monroe.

"Then, seven stories was a high-rise," he said. "Now, it's a baby."

Melikian has owned the hotel on and off since 1973 - other firms took over for a few years in the 1970s and 1990s - but both times the family had to step back in.

"I've tried twice to retire," he said. "Twice it has come back to us."

The birthday comes during a time of transition for the landmark.

For years, the 121-room hotel was one of three main downtown hotels. Guests pay anywhere from $79 per night in slow months to $209 during the peak tourist season. The $600 million expansion of the Phoenix Convention Center, however, has helped attract more competitors. The city-financed, 1,000-room Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel opens in the fall. Developer Grace Communities plans to open a 150-room boutique hotel later this year called Hotel Monroe in a 1931 building just down the street from Hotel San Carlos.

Hotel San Carlos is also changing.

This summer, the owners plan to do more restoration work in the lobby. The project includes installing marble on the front desk - it was taken out by other owners, Melikian says - and painting and restoring other period details.

Down the line, the hotel plans to take part in a Maricopa County plan to develop cutting-edge meeting and training space in the county building next door. The effort could give hotel guests access to high-tech meeting rooms, said Bill Scalzo, a retired assistant county manager who is a consultant on the project.

A few feet from the lobby's original 1920s marble floor, construction workers have laid tracks for the $1.4 billion light-rail line, which will open in December.

The seven-story Hotel San Carlos no longer dominates Phoenix's skyline, Melikian said, but the local hotel industry will always have room for the storied landmark.

"The vitality of the city is only as healthy as the preservation of its past," Melikian said.


Author: Jahna Berry
Source: The Arizona Republic