GOCO RETREAT TEMESCAL VALLEY: GOCO Hospitality, an international company specializing in the wellness hospitality business, purchased Glen Ivy Hot Springs in January 2016.
(Published July 12, 2018)
It was a standing-room-only crowd that attended the June Municipal Advisory Council meeting to learn what GOCO Hospitality has planned for Glen Ivy Hot Springs.
The 158-year-old spa and adjacent property was purchased in January 2016 by GOCO, an international wellness hospitality development and management company headquartered in Bangkok.
The current resort covers about 20 acres and GOCO seeks to develop the remaining 62.5 acres which include open land and groves, and the conference and retreat center used by Glen Ivy’s former owner, the spiritual group Emissaries of Divine Light.
Joel Morse of T&B Planning, a Tustin-based consulting firm specializing in land use planning, told the audience plans for the
property were still in the early stages and not all questions could be answered. He asked that questions be withheld until after his presentation.
Morse said, “GOCO’s goal is to make Glen Ivy a world-class retreat and wellness center.” To that end, GOCO asked current Glen Ivy guests what they would like added to the facility. Popular answers included an outdoor bar and lounge concept, evening activities, a café with coffee shop, additional pools and water facilities, plus workshops, seminars and demonstrations.
Since purchasing the spa, GOCO has made $2.5 million in improvements, including remodels of the restaurant, bar and personal services areas, changes to the menu which now includes many home-grown vegetables, and offers evening access during the summer months.
Future plans include the Glen Ivy Hot Springs Resort Hotel with 120-140 rooms for short-term stays, and an all-day dining restaurant. The hotel also will have a library and meeting spaces, a pool with lounging areas and a kids’ learning center.
Also planned is a Community Retail Village, with shops geared to lifestyle- and wellness-related retail, coffee shop and deli, organic food store, art gallery, workshop spaces for classes and events, and a central courtyard for community events, weekend markets and exhibitions.
GOCO Retreat Temescal Valley is being designed for guests interested in a more intense wellness experience and a longer stay. The GOCO Wellness Retreat will feature 30 to 40 rooms, with doctors and specialists available for consultations, treatment rooms, a wellness restaurant with personalized food menus, tea lounge and juice bar, and areas designated for indoor and outdoor activities.
GOCO plans to build and manage 60 attached residences in three- to four-story buildings, ranging in size from 650 to 1,600 square feet. The units will be available for lease, sale or lease back and will be fully furnished.
Also planned are 180 detached, single-family homes ranging in size from 2,000 to 5,000 square feet that target individual ownership by people who appreciate the wellness concept and long-stay residents.
Outdoor activities, in addition to the current pools and mineral baths, will include yoga and exercise areas, hiking, biking and walking trails, a lazy river for rafting, organic gardening, Japanese onsen (bath) and gardens, and community parks including an Oak Tree Preservation Park. The “Temescal Experience in Temescal Valley” will feature sweat lodges (saunas) and mineral baths, recreating what attracted Native Americans to the area centuries ago.
APPLICATION SUBMITTED IN MARCH
Morse told the audience that the specific plan application for the project was submitted to the county in March, but conceptual designs were still being worked on and that a GOCO design team from Bangkok will be here refining the plan over the next two months. “We have 80 percent assuredness that what we want to do can be done,” Morse said.
After the specific plan is submitted for county review, a scoping meeting will be held to solicit public comment on the plan. At that point, the environmental impact report (EIR), process will begin, and all substantive public comments will be addressed.
Once the draft EIR is completed, public comments again will be solicited and reviewed by county planners in preparation for a public hearing before the county Planning Commission. Commissioners will vote to recommend either approval or denial of the project to the Board of Supervisors.
The final hearing, again allowing public comments, will be before the Board of Supervisors which will vote to approve or deny the project.
Morse said the process before the county is lengthy but GOCO will keep the community updated as each step unfolds.
TRAFFIC IS MAJOR CONCERN
The primary concern voiced by those in attendance was the traffic impact the expansion would have on Temescal Canyon Road and Trilogy Parkway. Morse said the traffic impact analysis would be addressed in the EIR. He was open to the suggestion that GOCO obtain property in another area of Temescal Valley that would serve as a parking lot for employees who would be bused to and from the retreat. Glen Ivy currently has about 300 employees and receives 190,000 visitors each year.
Trilogy residents balked at an easement GOCO would need for a gated road connection to Trilogy’s Gleneagles Drive cul-de-sac that would serve as a secondary exit from the retreat in case of an emergency. Morse said he had reviewed the situation and learned that Shea Homes had granted the easement to Glen Ivy Hot Springs prior to Trilogy being built.
VIEWS, OAK TREES ALSO QUESTIONED
Other concerns by Trilogy residents included the viewscape from homes located on the seventh hole of the golf course. They questioned the location of solar panels, the location of homes in the retreat’s residential area, and how many trees would be removed from the stand of oaks that borders Trilogy.
Morse said he couldn’t answer all the questions because the conceptual designs were not yet completed but they planned to remove as few oak trees as possible and, currently, only eight homes were planned in that area and it would be a side view of the residences. He said the plan was to buffer the retreat’s northern boundary with Trilogy.
One woman had issues with the lights in the parking lot, calling them “blinding,” and asked if something could be done about the situation and if the parking lot was to be expanded, could different lighting be used.
Morse told her and others in the audience, “That’s why we’re meeting with you this early in the process. We want to work with you to address concerns and issues now while we’re still in the planning stages.”
Also attending the meeting was Ingo Schweder, CEO and founder of GOCO, his wife, Josephine Leung, responsible for design and development, and Clive McNish, general manager of Glen Ivy Hot Springs.
GOCO has world-class plans for Glen Ivy Hot Springs
(Published March 8, 2017)
Action taken by the county’s Board of Supervisors at the March 7, 2017 meeting could allow Glen Ivy Hot Springs to become a “world-class” retreat and wellness center.
The 157-year-old spa and adjacent property was purchased in January 2016 by GOCO Hospitality, an international wellness hospitality development and management company headquartered in Bangkok.
The current resort covers about 20 acres and GOCO seeks to develop the remaining 62.5 acres which include open land and groves, and the conference and retreat center used by Glen Ivy’s former owner, the spiritual group Emissaries of Divine Light.
The general plan foundation and land-use changes approved by the supervisors would allow the creation of a specific plan to guide the development of the project. The approval of the amendment allows the planning to begin, but does not give approval to the project.
The new development has been named GOCO Retreat Temescal Valley with plans for a retreat accommodation with 85 rooms and 10 pool villas. Other amenities include hotel, full-service wellness center, gymnasium, yoga academy, organic farm and gardens plus a farmer’s market, outdoor recreation areas and hiking trails, banquet and meeting rooms, a retail component, kids club and an education center for holistic medicine. Glen Ivy currently has about 150 employees and receives 170,000 visitors each year. It’s anticipated the Retreat will employ an additional 150 people.
The plans also include about 90 residential units – two- and three-bedroom homes and one- to three-bedroom condominiums. GOGO founder and CEO Ingo Schweder said the retreat industry has noted increasing support of wellness communities that combine accommodations with residential offerings.
While the land-use changes were approved, when completed the specific plan must still be reviewed by the county Planning Commission and then approved by the Board of Supervisors. Both meetings would involve public hearings, giving people the opportunity to comment either for against the project.
Schweder said GOCO currently is engaged in the first phase of the plan – repairing and upgrading Glen Ivy spa. With the general plan amendment approval, he said master planning now can begin and GOCO hopes to have the project approved this fall with construction starting in 2018 and completion by the end of 2019. Learn more about GOCO at www.gocohospitality.com/
See proceedings from the March 7, 2017 Board of Supervisors meeting HERE