The Omni La Costa Resort & Spa is a luxury destination resort hotel opened in 1965, located in Carlsbad, California, and is owned by Omni Hotels & Resorts, based out of Dallas, Texas. The resort is located in the San Diego area hills and is known for its golf courses and hosts professional golf and tennis tournaments. Tournaments at La Costa were hosted starting in the late 1960s, including many

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...

events and tennis events such as the

Southern California Open The Southern California Open currently known as The San Diego Open is an ATP 250 and WTA 500 tournament held at the Barnes Tennis Centre in San Diego, California. The event originated as the Southern California Championships that ran from 1887 ...

. Currently the resort is home to events such as World Team Tennis and the California State Amateur Championship. Omni La Costa Resort & Spa is a member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and has hosted the La Costa Film Festival.

History

The resort was founded in the early 1960s when a real estate developer,

Irwin Molasky Irwin Molasky (February 22, 1927 – July 4, 2020) was an American real estate developer and philanthropist from Las Vegas, Nevada. He was the Chairman of The Molasky Group of Companies. Early life Irwin Molasky was born to a Jewish family on Fe ...

, from Las Vegas discovered an equestrian ranch in the coastal foothills of Southern California. Originally conceived as a residential resort offering activities and instruction for all ages, the resort opened on July 10, 1965 with 40 units available to guests for $22 per night which included green fees, as well as access to tennis, horse stables and the pool.

Professional golf

La Costa served as a home to two notable

events. For thirty years, the resort hosted the Mercedes Championships (originally called the Tournament of Champions), from 1969 to 1998. That event left for Maui,

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

, when La Costa was selected to host the inaugural

WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship The WGC Match Play, currently titled as the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play for sponsorship reasons, is a professional men's golf tournament that has been held since 1999. It is the only one of the World Golf Championships to have been contested ...

in 1999. It hosted that event for seven of eight years (the 2001 event was played in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

), until it moved to

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

in 2007. In

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

and

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

, the resort hosted the

Kia Classic The JTBC Classic Presented by Barbasol, formerly the Kia Classic, is a women's professional golf tournament in Southern California on the LPGA Tour. It debuted in 2010 at the La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, then moved north for a year in ...

, an LPGA tour event with an estimated attendance of 43,000 in 2010.

''Penthouse'' article lawsuit

In March 1975, ''

Penthouse Penthouse most often refers to: *Penthouse apartment, a special apartment on the top floor of a building *Penthouse (magazine), ''Penthouse'' (magazine), a British-founded men's magazine *Mechanical penthouse, a floor, typically located directly u ...

'' published an article headlined "La Costa: The Hundred-Million-Dollar Resort with Criminal Clientele," written by

Jeff Gerth Jeff Gerth is a former investigative reporter for ''The New York Times'' who has written lengthy, probing stories that drew both praise and criticism. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for covering the transfer of American satellite-launch technolog ...

and

Lowell Bergman Lowell Bergman (born July 24, 1945) is an American journalist, television producer and professor of journalism. In a career spanning nearly five decades Bergman worked as a producer, a reporter, and then the director of investigative reporting at ...

. The article indicated that the La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad was developed by Mervyn Adelson and

using loans from the

Teamsters The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), also known as the Teamsters Union, is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of The Team Drivers International Union and The Teamsters National Union, the ...

Pension Fund and that the resort was a playground for organized crime figures. The owners, along with two officials of the resort, Morris B. "Moe" Dalitz and Allard Roen, filed a libel lawsuit for $522 million against the magazine and the writers. In 1982, a jury absolved the magazine of any liability against the lawsuit from the owners. The plaintiffs appealed, but in December 1985, before a new trial could begin, the two sides settled. ''Penthouse'' issued a statement that they did not mean to imply that Adelson and Molaskey are or were members of organized crime. In turn the plaintiffs issued a statement lauding ''Penthouse'' publisher

Bob Guccione Robert Charles Joseph Edward Sabatini Guccione ( ; December 17, 1930 – October 20, 2010) was an American photographer and publisher. He founded the adult magazine '' Penthouse'' in 1965. This was aimed at competing with Hugh Hefner's ''Playboy' ...

and his magazine for their "personal and professional awards." Total litigation costs were estimated to exceed $20 million. According to the ''

San Diego Reader The ''San Diego Reader'' is an alternative press newspaper in the county of San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a ...

, ''Merv Adelson finally admitted to mob ties in an interview published in the March 2013 issue of '' Vanity Fair'' magazine.

Connection to other controversies

On May 8, 2007,

WXYZ-TV WXYZ-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Independent station (North America), independent st ...

in Detroit, Michigan, reported that now convicted and deposed mayor of Detroit,

Kwame Kilpatrick Kwame Malik Kilpatrick (born June 8, 1970) is an American former politician who served as the 72nd mayor of Detroit from 2002 to 2008. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously represented the 9th district in the Michigan House of Repres ...

used $8,600 from a fund created for voter education, economic empowerment, and crime prevention, to take his family and a

babysitter Babysitting is temporarily caring for a child. Babysitting can be a paid job for all ages; however, it is best known as a temporary activity for early teenagers who are not yet eligible for employment in the general economy. It provides auton ...

on a week-long vacation to the La Costa Resort and Spa. Tax and accounting experts found Kilpatrick's use of the fund also violated IRS regulations.

Ownership timeline

*1965-1987: Mervyn Adelson and

*1987-2001: Sports Shinko *2001-2007: KSL Resorts *2007-2010: Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds *2010-2013: KSL Capital Partners *2013–Present:

Omni Hotels & Resorts Omni Hotels & Resorts is an American privately held, international luxury hotel company based in Dallas, Texas. The company was founded in 1958 as Dunfey Hotels, and operates 50 properties in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, totaling over ...

References

External links

La Costa Resort and Spa Wikimapia
{{coord, 33, 05, 32.16, N, 117, 16, 01.33, W, type:landmark, display=title Hotels in California Resorts in California Carlsbad, California Golf clubs and courses in California Swimming venues in California Tennis venues in California World TeamTennis stadiums 1965 establishments in California Hotels established in 1965