Hotel name changes sooner than expected Newport...

Hotel name changes sooner than expected

Newport Beach will become home to a Fairmont hotel sooner than

expected. Plans for the Sutton Place Hotel to be renamed the Fairmont

Newport Beach were moved forward to Wednesday, six months earlier

than expected, after a lawsuit filed last week alleged that the

hotel’s owners and managers were improperly using the Sutton Place

name.

“We’re very proud of this property, and we never want to question

another company’s name and reputation,” hotel general manager Randy

Zupanski said.

San Clemente-based Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc. closed a deal to

buy the MacArthur Boulevard hotel for $72 million in July. Sunstone

hired Toronto-based Fairmont Hotels & Resorts to manage the property.

Initial plans called for the hotel’s name to change in early 2006

after a multimillion-dollar renovation project.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday in U.S. federal court in Los

Angeles, according to a press release. The release stated Canal

Street Grande Inc. owns the U.S. trademark for the Sutton Place name

and filed suit against Sunstone, Fairmont and a third company named

in the release as Sunstone MacArthur LLC.

In the release, Charles Woo, executive vice president of Canal

Street Grand and president of the Sutton Place Grand Hotels Group,

said he believes that Fairmont and Sunstone damaged his company’s

image by continuing to use the Sutton Place name.