02.28.2008 — Built in 1893, the Hotel del Coronado is listed as a National Historic Landmark for good reason.

Over the years, the famous hotel, with its unmistakable architecture that sits on Coronado Island in San Diego harbor, has hosted presidents, royalty and celebrities.

It added to its heritage by being the backdrop for the classic 1958 film “Some Like It Hot” starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon.

Recently, Home Entertainment Lifestyle (dba American-AudioVideo) is hoping to make history of its own at the hotel after completing a 14-month-long installation as part of a massive expansion at the resort.

The A/V-only job covers over 26 acres and includes the pool area, spa and 11 one- to three-story beachside buildings—dubbed either villas or cottages, depending on the size—with 35 surround-sound systems and more than 100 plasmas and LCDs.

With the housing market slowing in Southern California, the timing of the job was fortuitous for American-AudioVideo. It has helped the 6-year-old company diversify beyond just new-construction residential to the commercial, hospitality and government markets.

Moreover, the company has opened a brand new showroom, broadened its lines to include unique furniture items, like fireplaces, and continued to foster strong relationships with designers and builders during these slower times that will reap dividends later.

Meanwhile, the San Diego area has been hit by a rash of big-box store closings that have created both promise and problems for the market.

Market Changes in San Diego

Like many integrators, James Love, president and CEO of American-AudioVideo, has a love for audio and video.

Twenty years ago, he was in the film industry and soon moved on to be an installer for a local custom shop. Back in those days, integrators often had to cobble together solutions for transmitting audio, video and control because there wasn’t a “black box” to do the job.

So, Love honed skills that included soldering diodes, relays and resistors. From there, he moved into sales at Big Screen City, a local San Diego specialty retailer.

“Since I came from working in the field, I was comfortable with contractors. So, Big Screen City decided to target builders, and we essentially created a ‘store within the store’ that was just for working with builders,” Love recalls.

But in April 2001, Tweeter Home Entertainment purchased Big Screen City and, even though the company continued the contractor relations/builder program, Love claims that Tweeter’s larger corporate structure was not designed to effectively work with builders.

“Things get backed up and the builder expects you to jump on the job immediately. You need to be their buddy. That’s how it works,” he says.

“But with a larger corporate structure, we would sometimes have to use different installers with the same builder, or our schedules would preclude someone from getting to the job for two weeks. It was death to the relationship with a builder.”

Instead of continuing to watch those relationships disintegrate, Love decided to strike out on his own. He formed American-AudioVideo early in 2002 with a focus on residential new construction.

In some ways, the circumstances surrounding his experience at Tweeter is repeating itself in the local San Diego market today.

“The market is always a challenge. With the housing market slowing, you have to diversify and find out where the money is. But the unique challenge we face in San Diego is the competitive landscape.

“Circuit City has cut back, Good Guys shut down, Tweeter closed and CompUSA has closed down. That has left a lot of technicians in the field trying to start their own businesses,” he says.

Love says many of those businesses are unprepared to handle operational imperatives like taxes, licensing and liability insurance.