SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA | WEEKEND GETAWAYS
Desert chic in Palm Springs
Palm Springs lures hip visitors with new resorts, yet stays true to its old crowd.
Tall, twin outrageous orange doors welcome visitors to the latest outpost of desert chic in Palm Springs. As a suntanned man in a hot pink jacket ushers you inside the Parker Palm Springs, a new luxury hotel, it's clear that change is afoot.
The once-formal Merv Griffin Givenchy Resort and Spa has been transformed into an upbeat distillation of "the admirably immoderate essence of Palm Springs," its decorator, Jonathan Adler, says. That means lawn hammocks, spangled pillows, leopard upholstery, zebra rugs, Adler's pottery and bamboo chairs that swing beside a sparkling fire pit.
Palm Springs, that desert oasis, that Hollywood hideaway, that tired and abandoned retirees' retreat, is busily burnishing its past and reinventing its future as a glamorous-again getaway. The main target? The young, the sophisticated, the discriminating upscale visitor with taste and money in equal measure.
Yet the retirees and snowbirds who loyally filled the condos during Palm Springs' downturn in the 1980s and early '90s are still there.
They are old enough to remember when the Rat Pack and its imitators sipped martinis and crooned in nightclubs. Now that same easygoing lifestyle is appealing to other generations who find ironic comfort in lounging by the pool, crowding into a piano bar and visiting quirky little hotels with vintage kitchenettes.
As one of nine cities in the Coachella Valley, about 130 miles east of Los Angeles, Palm Springs finds itself at a tricky crossroads. It's hard to inject cutting-edge ideas in a city long gone gray (40% of its residents are senior citizens). Palm Springs must sell the attractions of the entire region while also luring new visitors to stay within its city limits. It must not alienate the retirees, ignore the growing gay and lesbian population, overlook full-time residents or out-price budget-minded newcomers such as families and young singles.
"There's one thing that we're hyper-aware of," says Jeff Hocker, director of communications for the Palm Springs Bureau of Tourism. "There are 22 million people in Southern California. We can go after people in other cities, but we are a backdoor community for L.A. and San Diego. We need to maintain a level of hip and coolness to keep that audience."
Just over half of the city's visitors are from Southern California.
Five stars?
Meanwhile, the city is trying to bridge a perception gap.
"In terms of hotels, what we don't have are super-premium, deluxe properties," says Gary Sherwin, vice president of development at the Palm Springs Desert Resorts Convention and Visitors Authority. "We don't have five-star anything, even though we're perceived as a five-star destination."
Yet luxury is what the city is trying hardest to sell these days.
Virtually every new development to come across director John Raymond's desk at the city's office of economic development aims at the upper incomes. There are plans and proposals for $800,000 townhouses, five-star hotels, luxury additions to existing resorts and the ongoing $35-million convention center expansion that the city hopes will attract a richer slice of business.
The city-owned Tahquitz Creek Golf Resort is aiming to draw more visitors with a planned banquet facility and new 150-room hotel. Raymond says the city also has approved the Indian Oasis Resort, which includes a 400-room luxury hotel and championship golf course that will bolster the city's rather puny choice of five public and three private courses. Recently, the former Canyon South course was renovated and renamed Indian Canyons, an 18-hole, now championship-level public course.
The neglected motels that filled with college kids on spring break some 20 years ago are getting makeovers. Of the 15,000 hotel rooms in the valley, 6,500 of them are in Palm Springs, the vast majority retro properties of seven to 35 rooms.
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