Long-delayed Dream Hotel misses another deadline, and the city is done waiting quietly
The hotel project near the Convention Center has burned through years of extensions. This month the city placed the developer in default of its agreement.
PALM SPRINGS: The long-delayed Dream Hotel project has missed another city deadline, deepening doubts about a development near the Convention Center that was first proposed nearly two decades ago.
The project dates to about 2007. The city sold roughly 7.8 acres to developer Selene Palm Springs LLC in 2015, and the current plans call for 150 to 160 hotel rooms, at least 40 condo-hotel units eligible for short-term occupancy, and at least 36 luxury villas without short-term rentals.
In March 2026, the council approved an amended agreement built around nine milestones. The developer missed the April 30 deadline to complete a model room and the July 30 deadline to submit a guaranteed maximum price for construction, triggering default action by the city under the agreement.
Every missed deadline erodes confidence that the project will ever be built.
Default starts a legal process; it does not by itself end the deal. The agreement's repurchase terms follow contractual calculations if the city moves to take back the site, and the council has directed staff to report on its enforcement options, which could include financial penalties.
A familiar pattern
The Dream Hotel saga is one of the longest-running development dramas in the Coachella Valley. The project has survived multiple ownership and financing shuffles, each announced with fanfare and each followed by silence.
For the area around the Convention Center, the stakes are tangible. A completed hotel would bring hundreds of rooms and restaurant space to one of the city's most visible corridors. An empty lot brings none of those things, while tying up one of the most valuable parcels in the city.
What happens now
The agreement still targets construction starting October 1, 2026, with new construction drawings due October 15, a guaranteed maximum price by March 2027, completion on December 30, 2028, and opening the following day. Whether those dates hold depends on a developer that has missed every milestone this year.
Staff are expected to return with an accounting of the developer's compliance and a menu of enforcement options. Those could range from a final short-fuse extension with financial penalties to termination of the agreement, which would let the city seek a new developer. Termination would not produce a hotel overnight: a new developer would need a fresh agreement, financing and permits, a process measured in years.
The Post will continue to cover the project as the council's next steps become clear.
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