SUNNYVALE — A hotel that offers a playful lodging experience akin to being in a childhood treehouse is poised to bring hundreds of rooms to Sunnyvale’s tech hubs.
A new Treehouse Hotel will become the first of that brand to open in the United States and is slated to sprout in Sunnyvale, SH Hotels & Resorts, the creator of the unique lodging brand, said.
The hotel will be partly a renovation and partly brand-new construction and will contain 254 rooms, according to SH Hotels & Resorts.
“Sunnyvale is the epicenter of the bold ideas, disruptive technology, imagination and innovation that make Silicon Valley an icon and inspiration for the world,” said Barry Sternlicht, chief executive officer and founder of SH Hotels & Resorts.
The new Treehouse Hotel will be built at 1100 N. Mathilda Ave. in Sunnyvale in an area that’s dotted with many current buildings and future sites for famed tech titans such as Google, Facebook app owner Meta Platforms and Amazon, along with an array of smaller tech firms.
“I like the concept and think that Barry Sternlicht is one of the smartest hotel guys in the business,” said Alan Reay, president of Irvine-based Atlas Hospitality Group, which tracks the California lodging market.
The Treehouse brand takes a sustainable approach in its materials and building techniques and aims to offer people an unforgettable lodging experience that goes beyond a mundane hotel stay.
“It is right on point for what guests are looking for and plays into the environmental consciousness,” Reay said.
Even the names of features that would be found in a hotel of a significant size such as the Treehouse in Sunnyvale are designed to evoke playful thoughts, according to plans on file with Sunnyvale city officials.
It’s not a swimming pool, it’s the “Woodland Swim Hole.” Rather than a meeting or conference center, it’s an “Event Barn.” Other names include “Birch Grove,” “Oak Court,” “The Plaza Hub,” “Redwood Gateway,” “Flower Stroll Garden,” “Gathering Glade,” “Evening Garden Edge” and “Morning Garden Edge.”
The idea behind the Treehouse Hotel is to bring to mind the carefree comfort, freedom, nostalgia and fun of childhood, as SH Resorts puts it.
“Every inch of this playful property, from mismatched materials to secret nooks and unexpected artwork, creatively combines the energy and intensity of Silicon Valley’s high-tech culture with the simpler, older, more natural charms of the Santa Clara Valley’s pre-Internet era,” Sternlicht said.
A Sheraton hotel already operates on the site. The development would add brand-new rooms and carry out a dramatic renovation and revamp of many existing rooms and buildings on site.
The planned lodging could provide some clues about the ailments that linger in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
The coronavirus chased away business and leisure travelers from hotels worldwide and devastated the lodging sector in the Bay Area and around the globe.
Some indications have emerged that point to improved conditions for the leisure and hospitality industries. Still, the battered sector is still struggling to recapture its lost business.
The new hotel is scheduled to open in late 2023, Sternlicht estimated.
The Treehouse Hotel would feature a six-story tower with 142 new rooms and the renovation of several buildings that would revamp 112 existing rooms.
Most of the rooms will offer private outdoor spaces that will include patios on the ground floor and balconies and terraces for the upper floors.
The rooms will be designed to convey the notion of being in a treehouse and looking out at the real world beyond.
“Interiors will include soft sofas built into rough-hewn wooden bookcases, farm table distressed wooden desks and wood ceiling beams, colorful pillows and quirky quilts,” SH Hotels & Resorts stated.
