9 New Venues in San Diego for Spring 2025 Meetings and Events

Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center is slated to open on May 15. Located 10 miles from San Diego International Airport on 36 acres of waterfront property in Chula Vista, Gaylord Pacific is the sixth resort to join the Gaylord Hotels portfolio and the brand's largest hotel on the West Coast. Overseen by RIDA Development, the $1.3 billion resort will feature 1,600 premium guest rooms, including 89 spacious suites, plus a 4.25-acre outdoor water park, unobstructed ocean views, and 12 culinary venues. There will also be more than 477,000 square feet of meeting and event space, including 67 breakout rooms, four ballrooms, and more than 135,000 square feet of outdoor event lawns and terraces. Upon completion, the Gaylord Pacific will house the largest convention center of any hotel within the San Diego market, as well as the largest ballroom: the California Ballroom & Exhibit Hall, spanning 140,049 square feet.

The Bower Coronado, one of Coronado’s first new developments in decades, opened this week. The 39-room boutique hotel, located steps from one of California's most iconic beaches and minutes from downtown San Diego, offers a unique approach to hospitality with transaction-free arrivals, along with custom-built itineraries for guests. The hotel's architecture and design embrace the Japanese wabi-sabi philosophy of "perfection imperfection," emphasizing natural materials and serene aesthetics in homage to its location on the historic grounds of John D. Spreckels' Japanese tea garden. The Bower also features Coronado’s first and only rooftop bar and restaurant, Dive; it can be rented for private events and offers panoramic views spanning from Point Loma to Mexico.

The new Frontwave Arena opened in Oceanside in September 2024. The 170,000-square-foot multipurpose sporting arena—home to the San Diego Sockers indoor soccer team and the NBA G-League San Diego Clippers—has 7,500 seats and regularly hosts sporting events, concerts, comedy shows, community gatherings, and more. For events, the arena also has a 15,000-square-foot outdoor plaza with a stage and tiered seating; it holds up to 1,500 people. There are also 16 luxury suites, plus a premium bar and lounge that holds as many as 200 people.

San Diego’s historic Hotel del Coronado plans to open a new culinary concept, Veranda, in April in the space formerly known as Sheerwater. As part of the hotel’s extensive $550 million revitalization project, Veranda will feature a lush, garden-inspired design. Drawing inspiration from the hotel’s wraparound veranda—the 20-foot-wide veranda that encircled the building when it originally opened in 1888—the 159-seat, mostly outdoor eatery will offer an alfresco dining experience with standout views of the Pacific Ocean. (There will be 18 indoor seats, too.) The hotel is also slated to open the highly anticipated Nobu Del Coronado in May. And in June, the full revitalization project wraps up with a $160 million-plus restoration of the property's historic Victorian building. For meetings, the property has 65 event venues for a total of 96,000 square feet of gathering space.

NOVO Brazil Brewing Company opened a new brewpub in San Diego's Mission Valley in early 2024—and this past November, it rolled out a catering menu to accommodate large meetings and events. The 11,500-square-foot NOVO Mission Valley has indoor space spanning 8,000 square feet; it holds as many as 352 people, or can be sectioned off to accommodate smaller groups. Outdoors, there's another 3,500 square feet of space for as many as 237 people, complete with a large LED screen. The brewpub has full AV capabilities, with 100 feet of 1.5-millimeter pixel pitch LED video walls and 25 JBL speakers. There are more than 60 craft beers and NOVA kombuchas (the brand's sister company) on tap, as well as a full cocktail menu.

Jamul Casino Resort is slated to unveil an all-new hotel tower this May. The 200-room, 16-story space is connected to the main hotel via a climate-controlled, enclosed pedestrian sky bridge. Among the new amenities will be a 4,800-square-foot restaurant with sweeping views of the surrounding area, along with new retail space, meeting and banquet facilities, a full-service spa and salon with an outdoor deck, a fitness center, and an 11,000-square-foot rooftop pool deck with a jetted hot tub, cabanas, and a rooftop bar. The new space will also focus on tech innovation; each room, for example, will be equipped with a DigiValet control system featuring tablet-based and Alexa voice command capabilities with multilingual support—allowing guests to manage lighting, temperature, and entertainment, and request services. Opened in 2016, the $430 million Jamul Casino features nearly 1,700 slot machines, 46 live table games, and a dedicated poker room.

In February, Fairmont Grand Del Mar partnered with Taktika Padel to bring padel sports to its guests and the community with the addition of new paddle courts. The new courts add to the numerous outdoor activities and amenities already available at the resort, including pickleball and tennis. Taktika’s championship coaching staff is on hand to provide private lessons, group clinics, leagues, tournaments, and events. The 249-room Fairmont Grand Del Mar has versatile meeting and event spaces covering more than 20,000 square feet, with space for groups of up to 600 guests.

Roma Norte, which debuted from the team behind Puesto and Marisi in July 2024, has been named a 2025 James Beard Award semifinalist for Best New Bar. The space blends the electric energy of Mexico City’s cocktail culture with Latin American flavors, offering crafted drinks and small plates at The Headquarters at Seaport District. The stylish 2,000-square-foot space has a dark, moody interior accented by greenery and twinkling lights. It holds as many as 70 guests reception-style, and is available for partial or full venue buyouts.

Looking for a quick getaway? Located just two hours from San Diego and one hour from Yuma, Ariz., is Cambria Hotel El Centro - Imperial, a 108-room upscale property by Choice Hotels that opened in September 2024. The only full-service hotel in the Imperial Valley, the property features a 2,000-square-foot meeting and event room, which holds as many as 228 guests and has a state-of-the-art AV system and on-site catering. Other on-site amenities include a fitness center, an indoor pool, and 1905 Bar & Grill, which serves locally sourced small plates, craft cocktails, and a creative beer list.