A new project looks to build a hotel on Prospect Street across from the La Jolla Recreation Center, with plans now making the regulatory rounds.

An application was filed recently with the city of San Diego to convert the 16,683-square-foot property at 484 Prospect into a 20-room hotel.

The proposal, described as "in its very early stages," is undergoing city environmental review. A decision to approve or deny the application will be made at a public hearing that has not yet been announced.

The proposal, led by the same team that opened the Orli Hotel in 2022 on Draper Avenue (on the other side of the Recreation Center), intends to leave the exterior of the property largely intact but renovate the interior to become lodging.

According to a San Diego Planning Department report in 2010, the building originally was constructed in 1925 as nurses' housing for the original Scripps Memorial Hospital nearby. At the time of the report, it was being used for commercial offices. Real estate websites now describe it as a single-family home.

"We are looking at it from the standpoint that this area of La Jolla is a special cultural area, with the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the Rec Center, the Orli and the Woman's Club being right in the area," said Orli co-owner and new project applicant Max Waitt. "They all provide a historical perspective of La Jolla."

Though the proposed hotel's look and branding have not been confirmed, Waitt said the intent is for it to "evoke a luxury and charm similar to the Orli" and "certainly be a sister property."

"But we are not sure if this property would be an Orli brand since it is across the street," he said. "From a guest experience perspective, it would be similar."

Waitt said the existing building is "a masterpiece already and fits into our ethos and vision." The exterior and landscaping are "very special," he said.

"If there are quality issues, we would address that, but the exterior would remain as is," he said. "The interior would be more involved [with] necessary modifications to make it comply with a commercial use. It has a great layout, so it would be a restoration that would bring it to hotel use, such as guest rooms with a common area."

He added that the team would take a similar approach to the renovation as it did with the Orli.

The property that became the Orli Hotel, at 7753 Draper Ave., is a 6,110-square-foot, historically designated former bed and breakfast inn designed by Irving Gill and built in 1913 for the Kautz family. When Waitt's team renovated it, it touted the importance of retaining Gill's signature features.

Last year, the renovation into the hotel won a La Jolla Historical Society Jewel Award for rehabilitation of a non-residential structure.

"It needed a great amount of love and restoration," Waitt said. "I think it has been an awesome success and we have used the last two years to look at how we can expand. Even though we are across the street, we see a lot of potential with La Jolla, and that [Prospect] property would allow us to pay respect to its heritage but bring something modern to that part of La Jolla."

Waitt said he and his sister, co-owner Hailey Waitt, "always had our eyes on this property, so when it came on the market, someone recommended we look into it and explore it further."

Since then, he said, "we spent the last several months doing research on what that path forward would look like."

The property is not historically designated and there is no timeline for construction of the hotel.

Representatives of the La Jolla Historical Society did not immediately return requests for comment about the planned conversion. ♦