Run or draw.

That was a decision Rick Hill had to make as an undergraduate at the University of Kentucky nearly 40 years ago. A native of Bardstown, he wanted to be an architect but when he signed up for classes and found that mandatory studio times conflicted with running, he picked running.

“I made a career decision right there,” he recalled.

Maybe not so much.

Despite a long career in marketing shopping centers from his base in Charlotte, N.C., and a lifelong interest in running, Hill never lost his urge to design. He just reinvented himself as a real estate strategist and designer.

Recent examples of his mind behind proposed and completed design work in Louisville include the highly touted revitalization by Underhill Associates of Westport Village that h as been called an “against all odds” success. The former grim and decaying Camelot Shopping Center at Westport Rd. and Lyndon Lane won a recent landmark award from the Louisville Historical League. “The main thing was to remove the strip mall look, which was done with creating new traffic patterns and creating a visual axis for the place. It works with small business rather than large ones and it thrives with inexpensive cafés,” Hill said.

Another is an ambitious nearly block-sized make-over for antiques dealer and property owner Joe Ley on East Market St. that could be a major piece of the evolving area. East Market with help from Ley’s anchoring business and a slew of grass roots art galleries, bistros and shops is headed into a new gear with other private owner plans to turn the former campus of Wayside Christian Mission into a downtown farmers’ market and community space.

“What I like about it is that is there’s so much there,” said Hill. “My plan (for Joe Ley properties) is to meet with what is already there and to add to it. This is what I call an in-between area. It needs to be redeveloped from inside out, creating cut-throughs for entire blocks and a sense of meeting places inside the block – a hand-made, home-made locality with all the things that can only be in Louisville, Ky.”

A third project has been the renovation and restoration of Hill’s own new headquarters in the lofty rooms of the former laundry house for the Presbyterian children’s home, Bellwood, in Anchorage.

“A real love is to take an old building and restore it back to its original state,” he said. “I made the commitment to stay true (at Bellwood).” That included copper guttering, a slate roof, new hardwood floors, cleaning the brick. “It was fairly non-economic,” Hill noted.

He is creating his own village, a series of three buildings, including one new one with a quadrangle for public gardens. The group will eventually house his company and other companies. He plans to open a small office in Shanghai and expand staff from three with contract work hired out to a full office with “land planners, an architect with illustration skills, qualified writers, economists and market researchers. “

“I want them to free me up from some of the tedium. . . I want to operate more on the creative side.”

Hill said in his life time he has created plans for 117 real estate developments, created the vision for dozens of projects and directed leasing for more than 10 million square feet.

He helped bring the first IKEA store to the United States in 1985; did the first redevelopment of a regional mall into an off-price center; and created retail planning for Sears Tower in Chicago, so that visitors did more than go up to top and back. The study he produced on how to increase revenue from visitors produced a $2 million stream of income.

He created the sponsor villages, now a park in Atlanta, for the 1996 Olympic Games and led redevelopment planning for the recent redevelopment of Gulfstream Park in Miami from racetrack to up-scale shopping area.

It started with his first “real” job out of college. Hill graduated from UK in 1974 with a degree in general studies, having selected studio art, art history and marketing as his foci.

“The Mall St. Matthews was looking for a marketing advertising specialist. I got the job,” he said. After two years, The Rouse Company that owned The Mall and many other shopping malls, sent him to Tampa, then Philadelphia, then Charlotte, N. C. The Wall Street Journal picked up on his redevelopment of a mall into an off-price center and predicted it was the future. “My phone started ringing off the hook,” Hill recalled. “That was the timing at (age) 29 for me to leave. . . I was young and dumb at that time.”

“I had no money. I began to look for foreclosed shopping centers and would offer to help fix their problems.” In 1990, he took a three week executive program at Stanford University. “I wrote down on a ledger pad all the interesting things I wanted to do. . . I wanted to work in national parks. . . I wanted to work in Africa. . . I wanted to work with the Olympic Games. . . I decided I didn’t want to spend my life taking care of shopping centers and their problems.”

He did strategic planning for national parks, he worked with the Atlanta Olympics, he reclaimed his running and helped start the Nike cross country running series and he made five trips to Ethiopia to work with homeless children and children with AIDS.

“I wanted to change the course of what I was doing,” Hill recalled. “I sold my company headquarters (Hill Partners) in Charlotte, N. C. in early 2001 and had a plan. I was going to semi-retire, spend more time in East Africa and work on this event I had created for Nike. This was to be the rest of my life. Then 9/11 took a lot out of me.”

He got to reading “The City of Collective Memory: Its Historical Imagery and Architectural Entertainments” by urban historian M. Christine Boyer, whose mantra is that the past is prey to invention.

“It’s my Bible” said Hill. “I have to read it a sentence at a time.” But he gets it, said Hill. If the new looks old, it creates a crisis of identity. That is why, he said, “I’m not into new urbanism. I’m into urbanism.”

“I have a love hate relationship with architects. . . I’m anti-city government” in terms of development,” Hill said. He thinks the marketplace is what determines success. As for the proposed controversial sweetheart deal with Cordish Companies for a City Center, he said, “I think it the wrong project in the wrong location at the wrong time. In 10 years, it won’t happen.”

Further, he volunteered, the amount of money being spent on the sports arena at the river front would better be spent $1million at a time in neighborhoods for community design and strategic thinking. “What if you spent $1 million on 30 blocks, or street corners?”

“What makes thing fly,” Hill said, “is when you have a diversity of places and a diversity of people, (when) it’s a 24 hours a day seven days a week action. It’s a living, breathing village. People know each other.”

And that is why his new company formed in 2001 is called Village Solutions.

Today, his projects include creative planning for three projects in India, including a tiger habitat and eco tourism center; a 3,000 acre agriculture village with a hospitality center and a hotel; and a “Bollywood,” a three to four screen cinema complex in Bombay. He is a consultant for the tourist destination of Halong Bay in Vietnam; for an Indo-China gateway to the Himalayas and Tibet for hikers; and the possible development of waterfront sand flats in Redwood Cal.

“I’ve spent a lot of time figuring out where the money is on this globe,” said Hill. “My business is morphing more into what I call marketplace-crafting.” It engages the skills of creative planning and design that drew him to architecture in the first place.

“I try to take projects that stretch me, that teach me, that are fun,” said Hill, “I try to get out those that are not or, not get into them in the first place.”

10 Problems with Dubai

1. Birds of a Feather. Many of the development companies in Dubai were managed by self-serving groups who were good at covering everyone’s back. As an example, some firms consisted primarily of Australians, and another all British. Their reaction to outside of the family managers was “it’s our tea party and you are not going to crash it.” In this regard, one would get a sense that the players knew they were building a house of cards and wanted to get as much as they could until the party was over.

2. How many times could you slice the same pie? Too many related development companies chased the same market with the same product.

3. Lack of Experience. There were not enough managers on the ground that had significant experience with multi-tenant retail development and even fewer with mixed-use property management experience. In their place were former academics, PHDs, engineers, graduates of the London School of Economics and more. But what was missing was conviction in knowing how to get things done.

4. Flawed Research. Market research was viewed as icing on the cake and not a reality check. People who did the research were well educated but had spent little time in doing real research on the performance of actual operating properties.

5. Wrong starting point. Market researchers bought the notion of 35,000,000 annual visitors to Dubai by 2012 and most projections flowed from that initial flawed estimation.

6. Lack of real people. Many new developments failed because the required density of buyers, tenants, shoppers and guest could not be generated fast enough to support the enormous infrastructure costs of highways, bridges, monorail system, airports, water and sewer and more.

7. Alice sighed wearily. `I think you might do something better with the time,’ she said, `than waste it in asking riddles that have no answers.’ Timetables for new developments and justification for projects were unrealistic and when questioned about the underlying reasoning I would often be told, “Everything is possible in Dubai”.

8. Lack of Transparency. Information and communication regarding all aspects of a project were often hidden within their own development teams. There was little transparency in top to bottom directives. In brief, there were too many levels of management and when asked the hard questions one would often be told a lie and the other would swear to it. In this example, almost every project in Dubai was going to be bigger, grander, and more creative than the next. A decision maker would communicate a vision of the world’s tallest building, the world’s largest mall, and so on. An architect would then translate the vision into wonderful computer generated images of the vision which would become the plan. Yet, there was limited central planning that was charged to connect all of the individual projects. As a result simple issues of capacity, parking, sidewalks, crosswalks, and more were thrown to the side.

9. Multi-brand tenants. Through licensing agreements, joint ventures, partnerships and franchises, single entities operated numerous storefronts with different brands. In some cases the full product line and the brand experience was appropriately transferred to a Dubai mall, but more often than not, one could see significant differences between company owned and operated shops as opposed to the Dubai presentations. As an example, Kitson in Wafi Mall just does not compare to the full experience on Robertson Street in LA.

10. Master Plans. Most projects in Dubai were driven with a vision communicated by excellent illustrations, models, and elaborate brochures but there was limited master planning of the entire city/state. As a result, the edges of projects, the zones between projects, and connection with adjacent properties were just short of horrible.

Now that I have vented, there is a lot of hope for Dubai. Hope that the vision is filtered and modified to allow it to grow at a sustainable rate. There is a hope that thecity/state regains its momentum and that new leadership finds its way to the top of the best development firms.

Then in 2008, along came Aventura Mall, located a few miles north of Bal Harbour with a report that their sales were exceeding $1100 per square foot and they were closing in on Bal Harbour.  But not to be out done, Bal Harbour came back with astounding sales projections that jumped to $2,139 per square foot in 2008.  In nearby Orlando, upstart Mall at Millenia reported sales per square foot at a surprising $1000.

So what’s up with these sales when the more mortal mall produces sales of $350 per square foot?

The answers are as follows:

• A new Apple store can raise the average sales of a good shopping center, dramatically.  Take for example their 10,000 square foot Fifth Avenue store in New York where gross sales were in the $350,000,000 range last year.  That equates to sales of $35,000 per square foot.  Add those types of sales to a specialty store mix and you can quickly see what happens to overall mall sales.  This is not to suggest that all Apple stores approach anything like their Fifth Avenue location but the more mortal mall can realize big overall gains in sales per square foot with the addition of an Apple store.  Smart real estate people are no longer accepting blind projections on average sales.  They now ask for a center’s average sales without Apple.
• In Bal Harbour very high end jewelers like Graff have been added to the mix in the past couple of years with the likes of Harry Winston, Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels.  But with store sizes of 1,000 square feet or less and an inventory with average price points in the tens of thousands it is not uncommon to see the addition of one store make a big difference in overall sales.
• Many malls exclude their underperforming shops when they report sales to the media.
• Malls with traditional lower producing uses such as a cinema will often be excluded from sales performance calculation.
• Smart developers constantly prune their tenant mix by terminating the leases of underperforming shops and replacing them with stores that will perform at a level higher than the center average.
• The highest producing malls realize a high percentage of their sales from international visitors.  As example, Aventura Mall generates 40% of its sales from visitors and Bal Harbour 50%.
• The devalued dollar has helped propel the sales of many malls that attract international shoppers.

1. Required Healthy Diets – Consumers are increasingly becoming more concerned with eating healthy food, not so much as by choice but out of necessity.
2. Food Network – The food network makes celebrity chefs out of all of us.
3. Gourmet Kitchens – We are no longer content with kitchen gadgets and a new cook book, they want professional kitchens with multiple ovens, oversized refrigerators and other tools of the trade.
4. Exotic Travel – Lower airfares, globalization, travel magazines and world travel books have all contributed to a desire for people to see the world and not just cosmopolitan cities.  As people travel to places like Yerga Cheffe in Ethiopia they want to bring back authentic coffee beans to become the new trophy over the living room mantle.
5. Gourmet Markets – Today, Whole Foods and a host of other specialty food purveyors are located in every city of any real size.  These markets provide the inspiration and a plentiful supply of ingredients to compliment virtually every type culinary adventure.
6. Celebrity Chefs – Finally, seemingly everyday people have become overnight celebrity chefs providing inspiration for every home chef.

Outlined below is a summary of major culinary changes in the market.
CULINARY TRENDS

1. Fresh new twists to humble foods such as artisanal cheeses used in macaroni and cheese.
2. Local produce.
3. Smaller portions.
4. Artisanal Liquor and Culinary Cocktails that are paired with foods.
5. Smoked meats and not fried.
6. Local sourcing.
7. Healthy foods.
8. Philosophy driven food choices (organic, free range).
9. Lean Protein.
10. Discovery of new corners of the world dishes such as Korean BBQ and Mongolian spiced roasted lamb.
11. Exotic Teas.
12. Slow food movement.
13. Bite size desserts.
14. New fabricated meat cuts.
15. Super fruits.
16. Regional versions of ethnic food, especially from Mexico and Italy.
17. Sustainable Seafood.
18. Chef’s Gardens.
19. Small plate menus.
20. Casual dining prepared by skilled chefs.
21. Healthy side items for children.

RESTAURANT TRENDS

1. Major, celebrity chef driven restaurants will be limited to major hotels, casinos and large new developments, which are willing to bankroll their lavish culinary edifices.  Conversely, stand alone culinary destinations are largely a phenomenon of the past and not something we will see in numbers as seen in the past decade.
2. In 2009 Las Vegas had more Top 20 restaurants (total sales volume) than New York City.  Other top culinary destinations include Chicago and Miami.  Surprisingly, Los Angeles does not have a restaurant in the top 20 in total volume.
3. Many of the highest volume restaurants in the U.S. opened their second units in Las Vegas in 2007 and 2008, only to be faced with a significant turn down in traffic in 2009.
4. Waiters will be replaced by chefs who served their own guests.
5. Restaurants will exploit the public interest in all things culinary with more face time with the chef, tours of the kitchen, cook books and blogs.
6. Elimination of special rooms for corporate parties.
7. Gourmet kitchens for take-out only.
8. Mobile kitchens serving gourmet simple food such as the Kogi BBQ truck in Los Angeles followed by thousands of Twitter followers.
9. Dining Decisions based on value.
10. Chef’s private gardens.

Part of Louis Vuitton's Mongolia Ad Campaign

The economic crisis has hit the luxury goods market hard. Houses such as Versace closed stores in Japan and Louis Vuitton shelved its Ginza, Tokyo opening. Moscow also saw brands such as Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen, and Lanvin close. With spending on luxury goods down across the world, luxury brands are increasingly looking far beyond New York, London or Paris for revenue to less familiar locales such as Almaty, Kazakhstan; Shenzhen in China’s Guangdong province and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. These countries are generating revenues from energy and manufacturing, and thus have small communities of people with extreme wealth. Therefore, these luxury brands are targeting these pockets of wealth.

Louis Vuitton followed this trend by opening its store in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, on October 23. Mongolia is an Asian country of 2.7 million people with extensive mineral resources but has only an average per capita annual income of just over $1,800 USD. Ulaanbaatar had a 2008 population of just over 1 million. Most of its young residents are the first generation of their family to be born or grow up in the city.

Yves Carcelle, chairman of Louis Vuitton, illuminated their decision to open in Ulaanbaatar by stating “The desire for luxury is more and more universal so the luxury sector has to reach its clients around the world”.

So why target these new markets? As the economic recession worsens for the commercial real estate sector, especially in the west, luxury brands have to find new ways to survive and thrive – either through targeting new markets or adding new concepts. It appears they have chosen to target new markets.

A recent study by Bain & Co showed luxury sales this year will drop by 16% in North America, 10% in Japan and 8% in Europe compared to last year. In the rest of Asia however, sales are set to grow by 10%. Of the 300 luxury store openings in 2009, 15% will be in China, 25% in other Asian countries, 30% in the Middle East, and 15% in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. In contrast, just 15% will be in Western markets. However what the study does not show is that many of these opening are a result of several years of negotiations and leases with large termination fees. The true indicator of the luxury industry health will come in the next few years as the commercial real estate industry continues to deal with the economic recession ramifications.

Besides the major cosmopolitan cities, most of Asia has been untapped by luxury markets; partly due to accessibility and development. Much of Central Asia was isolated from these western luxury brands until the early 1990’s when Communism fell.

The digital revolution has also enabled luxury brands to enter the lives of new markets and consumers. In essence, the internet and media with it global reach has “increased demand by acting as a catalyst for markets” explained Bruno Pavlovsky of Chanel.

While it seems odd that luxury and European stores would be well adapted to Mongolians and their lifestyle, Mongolians have a long history of embracing other cultures. For instance, the Mongol army not only conquered the better part of the known world at the time, but they also embraced and developed the cultures they came across. Under the Mongols, new technologies, various commodities and ideologies were disseminated and exchanged across Eurasia.

Already Mongolia has an impressive number of international brands with Adidas, Mercedes Benz, Dior, Esprit, Swarovski, BMW, Land Rover, Lavazzia and many more. A Hilton and a Shangri La hotels are scheduled to open in the next few years. Additionally, Salvatore Ferragamo is also looking into opening a branch in Mongolia.

2010 will see the opening of other luxury brand stores, including Hugo Boss, Ermenegildo Zegna, Emporio Armani, Burberry and Versace. Gucci has already started advertising its new scent on TV, so perhaps a Gucci store is in the works.

While these brands have very different target consumers in their more developed markets, in Mongolia they may have to compete for the same handful of customers who can afford their products and are brand-conscious enough to purchase them.

Apparently, there seems to be sufficient number of high-net-worth Mongolian individuals for the luxury brands. Likewise, the LV store is another additional vote of confidence in the dynamic growth of Mongolia that some predicted could become the next Qatar. The internet is already filled with companies offering luxury vacations to Mongolia.

I believe Legoland sees an opportunity in the recession because consumers are looking for free or affordable cost entertainment in their malls. This trend also corresponds to a consumer who expects their news to be free on the web. Consequently, we see malls across the globe add entertainment and amusement venues to draw consumers who have relegated shopping to obligatory time, which is something close to work. These consumers are bored with the same stores in every mall and with higher gas prices, lost home values and depressed 401K accounts they do not have the funds for a shopping spree.

Yet, Legoland charges on with a strategy to open in Grapevine Mills mall in Dallas, TX and are they are looking for a location near the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. Additionally, the city of Dallas will give Merlin Entertainment, the operator of Legoland, a $1 million TIF (Tax Incremental Financing) incentive package to open in the mall. The facility is projected to open in March 2011 in 40,000 square feet.

Glenn Earlam, a managing director with Merlin, said in a statement that “the inclusion of a quality leisure attraction like the Legoland Discovery Centre will . . . deliver significant incremental business to both the mall, to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and the greater region as a whole.”

Likewise, Disney earlier this month announced that they are turning 340 of their Disney Stores into “entertainment hubs” and renaming them Imagination Park with the help of Apple’s Steve Jobs. The goal is to make children clamor to visit the stores and stay longer, perhaps bolstering sales as a result. Over the next five years, analysts estimate that Disney will spend about $1 million a store to redecorate, reorganize and install interactive technology. Some Disney board members fretted though that the concept was so lavish that parents would try to use the stores as day care centers. Others worried that people would come for the entertainment but not buy anything. Disney is pitting landlords against each other to try and get the best deals in top-tier locations.

The Middle East seems to be leading the trend with the biggest entertainment venues as attractions in malls. Examples include the 15,000 square foot Wahooo! Waterpark which just opened in Bahrain City Centre mall, and the now infamous Ski Dubai at the Mall of Emirates.

Ski Dubai located in Mall of EmiratesBut will these large financial investments hold up in the long-run? Or are they a 21st Century repeat of the previously failed versions of entertainment in malls, such as Warner Brothers, Gameworks, FAO Schwarz and Niketown? The 1990s saw the end of roller rinks in malls and affordable home video game systems killed the mall arcade.

With all the focus on entertainment will the new shops fail like many others in the past, especially when Target and Wal-Mart offer the lowest priced toys in a warehouse envirnoment?

Disney claims sales at its original stores, which opened in 1987 and sold to Children’s Place in 2004, plummeted because they oversaturated the market. However, many analysts believe that the stores’ visitation was high due to the entertainment but not enough people bought to sustain the rents and overhead.

I remember stopping in The Disney Store on every mall visit but only purchasing merchandise a handful of times. Is my experience the norm or a rarity?

Additionally, FAO Schwartz which was a New York destination failed when it tried to bring their concept to malls proving that high entertainment value does not always translate into high sales figures. So I ask the question, are these high investment entertainment venues going to last or are they a trend that will be a lecture in business school ten years from now?

A Legoland Discovery Centre – a small indoor attraction based on the tiny plastic brick children’s toys from Denmark – is being planned for metro Atlanta, a broker said Friday.

The company that will develop it – Merlin Entertainment Group of the United Kingdom – may also seek to bring its wax museum brand — Madame Tussauds — to Atlanta, said Howard Samuels, the company’s national broker with Samuels & Co. in Los Angeles.

The location for the Legoland attraction – which would charge admission of $15 for kids and $19 for adults – is still in negotiations, Samuels said. The attraction would include an Atlanta skyline made of Legos.

Sites being considered are Atlantic Station near Midtown, North Point Mall in Alpharetta, Buckhead and downtown Atlanta, he said, as well as other sites that “meet our criteria.”

Criteria include being near other “family-oriented co-tenants” with good dining nearby. Samuels said he is in negotiations, but he wouldn’t say whether a letter of intent has been signed.

The indoor attraction would be about 35,000 square feet – the size of the recently closed ESPN Zone restaurant in Buckhead.

It would include several rides, a large play area, a café and a gift shop, and be available for private parties.

There is only one U.S. location of Legoland Discovery Centre, which is in Schaumburg, a Chicago suburb. A Legoland amusement park is in Carlsbad, Calif., near San Diego.

Mike Pastor, the general manager of the Schaumburg location, said the average age for visitors is about 7 years old, but the attraction brings in kids ages 3 to 12.

The Chicago outpost opened in July 2008. “We’ve met our budget goal so far and exceeded what we expected,” he said.

Samuels said these attractions are built with the expectation they could get 400,000 to 600,000 visitors annually. The company does not disclose development costs.

Merlin Entertainment operates about 60 attractions in 13 countries. A London spokeswoman wouldn’t confirm details about Atlanta, but she did say Merlin is looking to add U.S. locations for several of its brands, including Sea Life.

In general, Merlin seeks economic development incentives to help offset the capital costs for the attractions, Samuels said. But without a lease in hand, it has yet to pursue public incentive funds, he added.

The Legoland attraction is set to open in the spring of 2011, he added.

A Legoland and/or Madame Tussauds would add more feathers to Atlanta’s hat as a tourism destination in the Southeast.

A pirate museum and college football hall of fame were recently announced as well.

William Pate, president of the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau, said it would be nice to have another place for young kids, along with the Imagine It Children’s Museum of Atlanta and the Georgia Aquarium.

“It really fits in to our diversified portfolio of tourist offerings,” he said, referring to the varied tourism sites now downtown, plus the ones that are coming, such as the National Health Museum.

He believes a Legoland indoor park, because of its uniqueness, would also be another magnet for tourists who drive from Birmingham, Nashville and Knoxville, for example.

Calcutta has the potential to house 10 amusement parks, but has only two such crowd-pullers — Nicco Park and Aquatica. While South India boasts of 30-35 fun parks, the eastern region has just seven of the 120 in the country.

This was the talking point at a meet organised by the Indian Association of Amusement Parks and Industries on Saturday in Nicco Park.

“The process (of setting up amusement parks) was speeded up in the south because of government support,” said N.D. Rana, the president of the association, formed 13 years ago to promote the industry. 

“South India gained the tourists Kashmir lost and states like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala pulled out all stops to woo amusement park promoters,” Rana added.

The association members were, however, upbeat about the industry’s prospects in the east. “You have a good population mix and beautiful space available,” said Rana. But the government has to lease out land to park promoters at affordable rates, he added.

C.L. Chamaria, the chairman of the association in the east pointed to the potential in other cities in the region. “Places like Agartala and Siliguri are coming up,” he said.

On Saturday, the association announced its 10th Amusement Expo 2010. The business-to-business event aimed at promoting trade and networking will be held from March 18 to 20 in Mumbai. “A consultant from Disney will speak on safety measures at the expo,” said a member of the association.

The amusement park industry clocks a turnover of Rs 2,000 crore in India and is growing at 10-15 per cent annually. It generates 200 to 300 jobs per park, the member added.

A $2 billion resort plan for Cairns including a theme park, film studio, water park and hotels, has been unveiled this afternoon.

Proponent Tropical Resort Developments Pty Ltd said building on the Edmonton development could start as early as 2011, and would take 10 years to complete.

The major project still needs approval from the State Government.

The new project plans come as Cairns Regional Council prepares to vote on a controversial proposal for a waterslide theme park at Smithfield.

Tomorrow’s council vote comes after council planners recommended a proposed $35 million water park Adventure Waters be rejected.

A proposal to build a 254-room, Lego-themed hotel at the Legoland California amusement park won the support it needed Tuesday from the Carlsbad City Council.

The state’s Coastal Commission also is expected to soon sign off on the plans, but when construction will begin is uncertain, project backers said, adding that it depends on national economic conditions.

“We need to see signs of recovery first,” Legoland general manager Peter Ronchetti told the City Council.

Once the park’s owners —- Merlin Entertainments —- agree to begin the job, it will take about 18 months of work before the proposed hotel can open its doors to paying customers, Ronchetti said.

Tucked out of sight between Cannon Road to the north and Palomar Airport Road to the south, the Legoland California park opened in 1999 and added a separate aquarium attraction last year. The park’s rides and other attractions are inspired by creations made from the plastic Lego building blocks.

The proposed hotel will include a Lego clock tower and brightly colored Lego decorations around its exterior. Plans call for the serpentine-shaped hotel, which will wrap around a pool area, to be built in two phases, with the first phase consisting of 152 rooms. The hotel is proposed to go on what’s now the RV parking lot next to the ticket counters.

The RV lot is seldom used, so the loss of its parking spaces isn’t considered a big concern, city senior planner Van Lynch told the council.

In fact, Legoland has so much excess parking space that it leases part of its lower lots to car dealerships for new-car storage.

Council members said they were eager for the place to open. Councilwoman Ann Kulchin noted that city leaders have expected a Lego-themed hotel ever since the park opened a decade ago.

Others said they loved the room designs, particularly the luxury ones with pirate and castle themes.

“I think this is obviously a very unique hotel,” Councilman Mark Packard said.

Ronchetti said that even the basic rooms will carry a Lego look, with special carpeting that has the texture of the bumpy top of Lego blocks. The wall paper will feature building plans for Lego objects, he added.