Blog note: this article references a grand jury report.
PACIFIC GROVE — An application to construct a hotel and commercial space in the troubled American Tin Cannery building was submitted Friday to the city of Pacific Grove.
Debra Geiler, the head of entitlements for EI Segundo-based Comstock Properties, confirmed Friday that her company has filed an application and is in the initial stages of a development plan after striking a lease agreement with the Cannery Row Co., the owners of the building at 125 Ocean View Blvd.
Geiler said they worked with Ted Balestreri, chief executive of Cannery Row Co., for the past eight or nine months to hammer out a long-term lease agreement. Comstock determined that the site was underutilized and ideal for investment.
The Tin Cannery is currently home to roughly 20 small retail shops, far from its capacity.
Mike Zimmerman, chief operations officer for Cannery Row Co., said there is no better place in Pacific Grove to put in a hotel.
“This is going to be great for Pacific Grove,” Zimmerman said. “It will give PG one of the finest hotels in Northern California and provide great financial benefits for the city of Pacific Grove for years to come.”
Geiler said having a new hotel at the location will contribute to the Cannery Row community and help create an important entryway and identity for Pacific Grove. There will be opportunities to partner with the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Hopkins Marine Station to incorporate the “Monterey Peninsula charm,” she said.
“The design will incorporate the existing building,” Geiler said. “The plan will also have 20,000 square feet of retail, very similar to the San Francisco Ferry Building.”
The project is in its infancy and will take roughly nine to 12 months to finish the designs, answer questions from planning staff and the public meeting process to be completed, Geiler said, adding that the company has been in “lockstep” with the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District and has confirmed that it has more than enough entitlements for the project.
“All told it will likely be 18 months before there’s any activity on the actual building,” she said.
An earlier 160-room hotel project dubbed “Project Bella” came apart at the seams after launching in 2015 by developers Domaine Hospitality Partners. In February 2017 the permit for that project expired leaving the city of Pacific Grove in the lurch for more than $100,000 worth of expenses only partially recovered from the developers, according to a Civil Grand Jury report issued in July of last year.
Up to the point of failure, the project had cost nearly $250,000 plus the cost of a $31,000 investigation. Domaine Hospitality reimbursed the city roughly $180,000 of that.
Pacific Grove was the subject of severe criticism in the Grand Jury report, accusing it of moving ahead “without proper due diligence,” the report read.
June 10, 2019
Monterey Herald
By Dennis L. Taylor
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