One of San Diego County’s smallest and most forgotten towns could be revived by the renovated Jacumba Hot Springs Hotel. In 2020, Jeff Osborne and his partners Melissa Sturkel and Corbin Winters reportedly purchased the hotel for $3.9 million. The hotel will have its grand opening on Wednesday.
“This is the beginning of a recovery for this town,” Osborn said.
But he and his partners are worried that a solar farm right next door could derail that recovery. German company Biwa RE received unanimous approval from the San Diego County Board of Supervisors to build a farm six times the size of the entire town of Jacumba Hot Springs, Osborn said.
During Hollywood’s Golden Age, actors like Clark Gable and Myrna Loy escaped the glamor and headed to the desert. The hot springs were the biggest attraction and served as an oasis for stars.
“Jacumba Hot Springs was built by former San Diego mayors in the ’20s as a historic destination connecting San Diego and the Imperial Valley,” Osborn said.
However, it collapsed over the decades. In recent years, several owners have tried to revive it, but without success. Osborn now hopes the hot spring pool, rooms, bar and atmosphere will eventually become the core the East County town needs.
San Diego locals Cat Lilly and Sarah Vaughn didn’t know about the hotel until it recently came up on social media.
“I’ve never been here before. I’m impressed by this place. It’s so beautiful. The hot spring pool is perfect,” Lily said.
Osborn and his partners learned that the hotel purchase also included 80 percent of the town’s commercial real estate, including Main Street stores, a defunct gas station, an old bathhouse, and a dried-up lake. They now consider themselves stewards of Jacumba Hot Springs and plan to redevelop it as much as possible over the next few years.
“We feel this place is very special. We think this geography is unique and worth protecting and worth preserving,” Osborn said.
There’s a catch. Osborne reports that solar panel construction could begin next year on land outside the town.
Ms Osborne worries that the scale of the project could ruin the town’s character.
“From the beginning, we thought it was overkill because of its size. We support renewable energy, but we thought it was being built close to town,” Osborne said.
Osborne is optimistic and believes the two can coexist.
โWe consider the people who live here to be our friends, community and neighbors,โ he said.
