Waterfront Hilton Hotel

The City Council on Monday gave the Economic Development Department the go-ahead to apply for federal funds to help finance the Waterfront Hilton expansion. The city would apply for more than $8.5 million in loans from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to finance about $6 million in public costs associated with the hotel's expansion, and about $2.5 million to renovate the city's gym and pool.

The Waterfront Hilton, a resort hotel that has been the centerpiece of Huntington Beach's seaside redevelopment, has emerged from bankruptcy reorganization proceedings, hotel officials said Wednesday. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James N. Barr approved the Waterfront Hilton's reorganization plan Tuesday after the resort's owners reached agreement with its prime lender, its builder and about 300 other creditors. Under the agreement, the hotel will pay $16.

The Waterfront Hilton Hotel and Resort in Huntington Beach has added Michael J. Quinn as director of sales and marketing. Quinn directed the national sales program for the Dana Point Resort and the Palm Springs Marquis Resort and Villas. . . . Knott's Berry Farm has added Robert W. Deuel to its public relations staff as a park publicist. He previously was manager of corporate communications with now-defunct AirCal.

State Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren is scheduled to be the featured speaker Friday night at the 25th anniversary dinner of the Huntington Harbour Republican Women, Federated at the Waterfront Hilton Hotel. The session will begin with a poolside reception at the hotel from 7 to 8 p.m. Dinner in the main ballroom will follow the reception. Lungren, who represented a portion of northwest Orange County while a member of Congress from 1979 to 1989, will speak following the dinner.

Re "Hearing Set on Federal Aid for Hotel Project," Dec. 31: The city of Huntington Beach, having mortgaged all of its assets to prop up 10 years of redevelopment, now eyes $6 million in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development money so it can further subsidize the Waterfront Hilton hotel. Having observed an empty and embarrassing decade of downtown redevelopment disasters, I will not be surprised to see them continue an abstract renewal scheme, which produces unwanted office space, overpriced retail space, unfriendly public space, not enough parking space, and all requiring continued subsidies.

Economic development, infrastructure improvements and labor contract resolutions top the priority list of city leaders in 1998. Mayor Shirley S. Dettloff said economic development of the once moribund Huntington Center Mall will take off this year. The mall, which anchors a 16-acre area earmarked for business and retail development, will be turned into an open air mall with shops, dining and a theater complex.

The City Council will have a special meeting tonight to consider technical amendments to the city's Waterfront Redevelopment Project. The Waterfront project encompasses land near Beach Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway. The new Waterfront Hilton Hotel is part of the overall project. The proposed agreement before the council tonight would allow a different city repayment plan to the major developer, Robert L. Mayer. Mayer, who built the hotel, is owed $5.

A man was found dead Tuesday afternoon in a vacant lot used as a parking area for employees at the Huntington Beach Waterfront Hilton hotel. Police said they do not know exactly how the man died and are treating the case as a suspicious death pending the outcome of an autopsy today. Officers went to the lot across the street from the hotel in the 21100 block of Pacific Coast Highway about 2:15 p.m., after an employee of the hotel called anonymously, Sgt. Chuck Thomas said.

The Hispanic Bar Assn. of Orange County will honor a judge, an attorney and a congresswoman at its 20th annual installation and awards ceremony Feb. 28. Municipal Judge Francis Munoz will receive the group's Cesar Chavez Community Services Award, lawyer Jess Araujo will receive the Special Recognition Award and Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) will get the Legislator of the Year Award. In addition, the association will introduce its new officers for 1998.