First a hurricane, now a tempest as Baja’s Capella Pedregal changes names

First, Capella Pedregal, one of the most elite resorts in Cabo San Lucas, took a hit from Hurricane Odile. Now comes a tempest of another sort -- a management shakeup and name change.

Meanwhile the hotel itself, closed since Sept. 14, isn’t expected to reopen until mid-January at the earliest.

The dispute went public Tuesday, when the Pedregal resort’s publicists announced the hotel was changing its name to The Resort at Pedregal and severing its connection to Capella, a management company than runs several high-end hotels worldwide.

The same announcement noted that veteran hotel executive Bob Holland would take over as interim general manager, adding that the change would have “little to no impact” on resort staff.

But that same day, the Capella Hotel Group’s CEO, Horst Schulze, issued his own statement to travelpulse.com (and later travelagentcentral.com), asserting that the resort co-owners CarVal Investors had seized control of the property in breach of the Capella Hotel Group’s contract. Schulze also said “we have no intention to accept a takeover.”

The Capella Hotel Group operates upscale hotels in Mexico, Washington D.C., the Caribbean, Europe and Asia. In the aftermath of Odile, the company donated $10,000 to help Pedregal employees and their families recover.

The trade publications quoted Schulze saying the sudden move in Cabo was “part of an ongoing dispute between the two owners of the asset… We have been caught in the middle.”

A spokeswoman at Capella Hotel Group in Atlanta was unable to provide more information Wednesday. Representatives at the Pedregal resort’s public relations firm, J Public Relations in San Diego, said the hotel was owned by a Mexican property trust and that “we cannot comment on matters in litigation.”

The 24-acre resort, which opened in 2009, includes 66 rooms and suites along with 21 villas, two restaurants and spa and stands near the southernmost tip of the Baja peninsula, accessible only by a 1,000-foot-long private tunnel. Rates typically run north of $600 nightly.

In January, Pedregal received a five-diamond rating from the AAA – one of just two on the Baja peninsula. Readers of Travel&Leisure magazine recently voted it the best hotel in Mexico.

The resort’s new website says “the earliest possible date” for reopening will be January, and offers deposit refunds to anyone holding reservations earlier than Jan. 15.