Construction is now underway on a roughly $2.8 million Turkish-inspired spa at The Lafayette Hotel & Club at 2223 El Cajon Boulevard, according to CH Projects founder Arsalun Tafazoli. The wellness facility is expected to include a sauna, wet steam room and traditional-style hammam clad in imported marble, and will become a centerpiece of a revived membership-based swim club intended to give San Diego residents access to the hotel's pool, gym and spa.
At the same time, CH Projects has indefinitely paused Le Horse, the upscale continental restaurant originally expected to complete The Lafayette's sprawling collection of food-and-drink concepts. The restaurant was initially targeted to open by the end of 2023 and was later pushed into 2024, but Tafazoli now says it isn't likely to arrive anytime soon as the company pours its attention into increasingly ambitious projects elsewhere in San Diego.
"It's not that we have changed course, but we are just pausing right now on Le Horse," Tafazoli told The San Diego Union-Tribune. "We were going to open it before the Baby Grand, but we have a finite amount of bandwidth, and these projects take a lot of time."
The pause marks another change in the evolution of The Lafayette, which reopened in summer 2023 after one of the most elaborate hotel renovations San Diego had seen in years. CH Projects transformed the historic property into an immersive hospitality playground containing extensively redesigned guest rooms, multiple restaurants and bars, a swimming pool, restored bowling alley, live entertainment space and an almost dizzying collection of custom-designed interiors.
Two significant pieces of that original vision, however, remained unfinished: the spa and Le Horse. Both had initially been expected to arrive relatively quickly after the hotel's reopening, but CH Projects' rapidly expanding hotel ambitions have since reshuffled the company's priorities.
The spa is now the clear winner. Tafazoli said the project is expected to cost approximately $2.8 million and take about six months to complete, putting a potential debut around spring 2027 if construction remains on schedule.
More interesting for locals may be what comes with it. CH Projects plans to bring back a membership-based swim club allowing people who aren't hotel guests to use portions of The Lafayette's amenities, including its pool, gym and new spa.
"A big part of this, though, is bringing back the swim club, because we wanted to make sure that we have something for the local residents where they'll have access to the spa, the gym and the pool," Tafazoli told the Union-Tribune.
Membership pricing has not yet been determined, with CH Projects reportedly waiting until it has a better understanding of the operating costs associated with the expanded facilities. The addition could nevertheless substantially change how locals interact with a hotel that, despite functioning as a neighborhood gathering place filled with restaurants, bars and entertainment venues, reserves its pool primarily for hotel guests.
The spa itself will draw heavily from hammam traditions associated with the former Ottoman Empire and surrounding regions, with wet steam, sauna facilities and extensive imported marble incorporated into the project. It will join an existing fitness facility that is also expected to be improved as part of the work.
Le Horse is another story. CH Projects still intends to eventually build the restaurant, according to Tafazoli, but it has fallen well down the company's increasingly crowded list of priorities.
The decision is easier because The Lafayette is hardly starving for restaurants. The property already contains Beginner's Diner, Oaxacan-inspired Quixote, Lou Lou's Jungle Room, The Gutter bowling alley, a lobby bar, pool bar and other food-and-drink offerings. CH Projects' own current materials continue to showcase The Lafayette as one of the company's flagship properties.
The shifting timeline also reflects a much larger transformation underway at CH Projects. The company that built its reputation creating some of San Diego's most elaborate standalone restaurants and cocktail bars has increasingly turned its attention toward entire hotels, where it can control virtually every component of the hospitality experience.
That transition became clear with The Lafayette and continued this past May with the opening of The Baby Grand in Coronado. The approximately $18 million project transformed the former La Avenida Inn into an elaborately redesigned 31-room boutique hotel containing Night Hawk restaurant and hidden Champagne and oyster bar Fallen Empire.
CH Projects is now undertaking an even larger transformation in Little Italy, where, as SanDiegoVille recently reported, the longtime La Pensione Hotel is being converted into the company's Dreamboat Hotel. The existing 67-room property at 606 West Date Street has been enveloped in construction screening while CH undertakes an extensive redesign expected to introduce dramatically reimagined guest rooms, a Korean barbecue restaurant and multiple additional hospitality venues.
The Dreamboat redevelopment is expected to consume roughly 19 months of construction, meaning an opening is unlikely before late 2027 and could stretch into 2028. CH purchased La Pensione for nearly $18 million in 2021.
Meanwhile, CH still has plans for the collection of properties it assembled farther north in Little Italy around 2345 Kettner Boulevard. That site was originally supposed to become Dreamboat, with plans for a new hotel, wellness center, restaurants and company offices, before CH shifted the Dreamboat name and concept to La Pensione.
The Union-Tribune now reports CH hopes to break ground next year on a new 68-room hotel and wellness project on those properties, although the ultimate branding and exact configuration of the development remain to be seen. Taken together with Dreamboat, The Baby Grand and the continuing work at The Lafayette, the projects help explain why an additional elaborate restaurant at a hotel already packed with dining options is no longer at the top of Tafazoli's list.
CH Projects has come a long way from its beginnings as Consortium Holdings, which Tafazoli launched with Neighborhood in San Diego's East Village in 2007. Over the ensuing two decades, the company created an influential collection of restaurants and bars including Craft & Commerce, False Idol, Ironside Fish & Oyster, Born & Raised, Raised By Wolves, Morning Glory, Seneca, Part Time Lover, Fortunate Son and Leila.
The company describes its projects not simply as restaurants and bars but as gathering spaces designed to foster social interaction, a philosophy that has increasingly been applied at the scale of entire hotels. The Lafayette has become the clearest example of that strategy and has accumulated national hospitality and design recognition since reopening, including Esquire's 2024 New Hotel of the Year honor.
For now, The Lafayette's transformation still isn't technically finished. But after years of delays, the spa is finally taking shape, and its planned swim club could give San Diegans a new way into one of the city's most elaborate hotels without booking a room.
Le Horse, meanwhile, will have to wait. Tafazoli says the concept hasn't been abandoned, but with CH Projects simultaneously building hotels, wellness facilities, restaurants and bars across San Diego, the long-promised restaurant has become a project for some undefined point in the future.
The Lafayette Hotel & Club is located at 2223 El Cajon Boulevard in San Diego's North Park. For more information, visit lafayettehotelsd.com.
More interesting for locals may be what comes with it. CH Projects plans to bring back a membership-based swim club allowing people who aren't hotel guests to use portions of The Lafayette's amenities, including its pool, gym and new spa.
"A big part of this, though, is bringing back the swim club, because we wanted to make sure that we have something for the local residents where they'll have access to the spa, the gym and the pool," Tafazoli told the Union-Tribune.
Membership pricing has not yet been determined, with CH Projects reportedly waiting until it has a better understanding of the operating costs associated with the expanded facilities. The addition could nevertheless substantially change how locals interact with a hotel that, despite functioning as a neighborhood gathering place filled with restaurants, bars and entertainment venues, reserves its pool primarily for hotel guests.
The spa itself will draw heavily from hammam traditions associated with the former Ottoman Empire and surrounding regions, with wet steam, sauna facilities and extensive imported marble incorporated into the project. It will join an existing fitness facility that is also expected to be improved as part of the work.
Le Horse is another story. CH Projects still intends to eventually build the restaurant, according to Tafazoli, but it has fallen well down the company's increasingly crowded list of priorities.
The decision is easier because The Lafayette is hardly starving for restaurants. The property already contains Beginner's Diner, Oaxacan-inspired Quixote, Lou Lou's Jungle Room, The Gutter bowling alley, a lobby bar, pool bar and other food-and-drink offerings. CH Projects' own current materials continue to showcase The Lafayette as one of the company's flagship properties.
The shifting timeline also reflects a much larger transformation underway at CH Projects. The company that built its reputation creating some of San Diego's most elaborate standalone restaurants and cocktail bars has increasingly turned its attention toward entire hotels, where it can control virtually every component of the hospitality experience.
That transition became clear with The Lafayette and continued this past May with the opening of The Baby Grand in Coronado. The approximately $18 million project transformed the former La Avenida Inn into an elaborately redesigned 31-room boutique hotel containing Night Hawk restaurant and hidden Champagne and oyster bar Fallen Empire.
CH Projects is now undertaking an even larger transformation in Little Italy, where, as SanDiegoVille recently reported, the longtime La Pensione Hotel is being converted into the company's Dreamboat Hotel. The existing 67-room property at 606 West Date Street has been enveloped in construction screening while CH undertakes an extensive redesign expected to introduce dramatically reimagined guest rooms, a Korean barbecue restaurant and multiple additional hospitality venues.
The Dreamboat redevelopment is expected to consume roughly 19 months of construction, meaning an opening is unlikely before late 2027 and could stretch into 2028. CH purchased La Pensione for nearly $18 million in 2021.
Meanwhile, CH still has plans for the collection of properties it assembled farther north in Little Italy around 2345 Kettner Boulevard. That site was originally supposed to become Dreamboat, with plans for a new hotel, wellness center, restaurants and company offices, before CH shifted the Dreamboat name and concept to La Pensione.
The Union-Tribune now reports CH hopes to break ground next year on a new 68-room hotel and wellness project on those properties, although the ultimate branding and exact configuration of the development remain to be seen. Taken together with Dreamboat, The Baby Grand and the continuing work at The Lafayette, the projects help explain why an additional elaborate restaurant at a hotel already packed with dining options is no longer at the top of Tafazoli's list.
CH Projects has come a long way from its beginnings as Consortium Holdings, which Tafazoli launched with Neighborhood in San Diego's East Village in 2007. Over the ensuing two decades, the company created an influential collection of restaurants and bars including Craft & Commerce, False Idol, Ironside Fish & Oyster, Born & Raised, Raised By Wolves, Morning Glory, Seneca, Part Time Lover, Fortunate Son and Leila.
The company describes its projects not simply as restaurants and bars but as gathering spaces designed to foster social interaction, a philosophy that has increasingly been applied at the scale of entire hotels. The Lafayette has become the clearest example of that strategy and has accumulated national hospitality and design recognition since reopening, including Esquire's 2024 New Hotel of the Year honor.
For now, The Lafayette's transformation still isn't technically finished. But after years of delays, the spa is finally taking shape, and its planned swim club could give San Diegans a new way into one of the city's most elaborate hotels without booking a room.
Le Horse, meanwhile, will have to wait. Tafazoli says the concept hasn't been abandoned, but with CH Projects simultaneously building hotels, wellness facilities, restaurants and bars across San Diego, the long-promised restaurant has become a project for some undefined point in the future.
The Lafayette Hotel & Club is located at 2223 El Cajon Boulevard in San Diego's North Park. For more information, visit lafayettehotelsd.com.
Originally published on September 17, 2026. Information first reported by Lori Weisberg of San Diego Union-Tribune.
