2/28/00
By MORGAN GREEN
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
Should the new sculpted ceiling of the Bacara Resort & Spa's massive ballroom be gold and blue, or maybe silver?
What cleanser will best maintain the natural marble bathtubs already installed in the luxury suites?
Such are the decisions now on the minds of a management team headed by Randy Gantenbein, who is in charge of completing
and running the one-of-a-kind facility. The team has promised to open the 25-acre, $222 million, 311-room resort
in western Goleta by Sept. 1.
He said Friday that construction of the resort will be completed in mid-June. "That's everything," including
a blufftop restaurant and executive conference center -- the last two structures yet to be started and which are
now only wooden skeletons.
But construction has advanced at most of the seaside resort's other 24 buildings that rise like a Mediterranean
town overlooking the beach. Spanish tiles are stacked on roofs and ready to be set; workers have smeared cream-colored
stucco on some walls. Others are testing the durability of their knee pads while inching backward across thousands
of square feet of guest rooms to cement the terra-cotta flooring.
Close to 600 construction workers and specialty craftsmen are swarming the site and traipsing through deep mud
and puddles left from the recent rains.
Weather notwithstanding, the work is on, or ahead of, schedule, said Gantenbein, who was picked for his job by
Alvin Dworman, the resort's New York-based owner and overseer.
As the contractors leave this summer, Dworman's managers will start interviewing people to hire as the resort's
700 to 750 permanent workers, from maids to desk clerks, and 100 or so occasional workers for jobs such as catering.
Some key managers, including the executive chef, already have been hired, Gantenbein said. By August, those managers
will direct a blitz of staff training.
With that large of a workforce, the hotel will be the Goleta Valley's third-largest employer. Number one is UCSB,
with 9,600 employed. Raytheon is second, with about 1,700 workers.
Some of the hotel's first customers already have been booked for events. The rate of reservations is going better
than expected, Gantenbein said.
Among the events that will test the resort in its first 90 days of operation are: a Santa Barbara Rescue Mission
charity dinner for 350; a two-day conference for 250 guests by Select Personnel, a Santa Barbara firm that provides
temporary employees; a conference for 200 guests by the Alliance Funding Corp., a nationwide company owned by Dworman;
a reception and dinner for 100 hosted by Tenet Health Care, based in Santa Barbara; and an international sales
conference for about 100 put on by Deckers Outdoor Corp., which is based in Goleta.
Bacara's management realizes that a good first impression is crucial to sell people on the resort, whose name is
pronounced bah-CAH-rah.
Hotel officials consider the Venoco oil and gas processing plant, just beyond the resort, to be an eyesore. Its
maze of pipes and steamy towers sit alongside the resort's entry road in clear view of incoming traffic from Hollister
Avenue.
Resort attorneys earlier this month offered the county $165,000 to fund a study into "amortizing" the
plant, which means requiring its closure after a period of some years.
In the meantime, the resort will obscure views of the oil complex with extensive plantings of trees and shrubs,
Gantenbein said. "We're doing everything we can. Instead of a full-on view, people will just get glimpses."
Temporary public access to Haskell's Beach, and a front row view of the resort, will remain open throughout the
construction phase. Signs mark the beach parking lot near the outflow of Tecolote Creek and the resort's partially
built snack bar, which will be open to the public. A permanent public beach access lot will be paved farther east.
Resort features that aren't visible include: a 12,000-square-foot, 750-seat grand ballroom; a 220-seat movie theater
with stage; a 42,000-square-foot health and beauty spa, which might be opened to local membership; a 25,000-square-foot
conference and events space; a separate executive conference center; courtyard retail shops; three swimming pools;
and three restaurants.
Gantenbein has hinted that rooms will run from $400 a night to $4,500 for the two-level presidential suite.
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