Napa, Sonoma, Solano, Marin hotel projects back on track after stalling in pandemic economy

After withstanding two years of pandemic-induced economic blows, a number of hotel developers in the North Bay are regaining their footing.

It’s been three years since Monahan Pacific Corp. got the green light from the city of San Rafael to move forward with its downtown AC by Marriott project. The real estate developer had seized a rare opportunity in the city's crowded downtown, thanks to a vacant property located at 1201 Fifth Ave. that previously housed a bank building, according to Tom Monahan, co-owner of the San Rafael-based real estate development firm.

The AC by Marriot project broke ground in October 2019 and had an estimated completion date of March 2021. But the pandemic’s arrival and subsequent lockdowns halted progress a number of times. In May 2020, Monahan told the Business Journal that the completion date had been pushed back to spring 2022.

Monahan told the Business Journal last week that the project has regained its momentum.

“The project has been topped out now, meaning that the framing is completed and the windows are in, and the shell of the building is almost completed,” he said. “So, right now we're forecasting opening in early 2023.”

The $25 million price tag for the project, however, is no longer realistic.

“The financial impact of all of the COVID-related labor shortages and material price increases have caused the project to be more expensive than originally anticipated,” Monahan said, also noting inflation. He declined to provide an updated cost estimate because he doesn’t yet have a final number. “When we get the final bill, it will be substantially more than we anticipated.”

Other notable hotel projects going on in the North Bay include the Hyatt Place in Novato, a four-story, 87-room, 49,000-square-foot hotel, according to Roland Ketelsen, principal at HRGA Architects, the Sacramento-based firm retained for the project, which is currently in the building permit phase.

HRGA primarily focuses on hotels and multifamily mixed-use projects Ketelsen noted. “We’ve done a lot of Hyatt projects,” he said.

Two of those Hyatt-branded hotels are taking place in Solano County.

Construction is underway for the Hyatt House in Vacaville, an 86,000-square-foot, four-story extended-stay hotel that will have 140 rooms. Construction began before the pandemic but was postponed for about a year before restarting, Ketelsen said. The completion date has not yet been confirmed.

Another of HRGA’s projects is a 66,000-square-foot Hyatt House in Fairfield that will have four stories and 103 rooms, Ketelsen said. That project is in the permitting phase.

“COVID really hurt the hotel industry” and stalled a number of projects, Ketelsen said. “Now we’re seeing some of those projects going forward with construction, or at least starting to head that way.”

Meanwhile in Napa County, Stanly Ranch, Auberge Resorts Collection — a mix of residences and hotels situated on 700 acres in the Carneros region of Napa Valley — has confirmed it pushed its opening date from late last year to this coming spring. Its 135 hotel cottage suites will include outdoor terraces with fire pits.

In Sonoma County, the redevelopment of an existing site on West Napa Street, aptly named Hotel Project Sonoma, is moving forward, according to Kristina Tierney, associate planner for the city of Sonoma. Tierney noted the city is in the process of preparing a draft environmental impact report for the site.

The three-story Hotel Project Sonoma will include 62 guest rooms, an 80-seat restaurant, a spa, outdoor pool and meeting space, according to the city and developer Kenwood Investments, which states on its website that it has been working on the design and entitlements for this project “for several years.”

Darius Anderson, founder of Kenwood Investments, also is managing partner and board chairman of Sonoma Media Investments, which owns the Business Journal, The Press Democrat and several other publications in the North Bay.

The project also includes an eight-unit residential condominium building and 130 on-site parking spaces, according to the city.

Hotel Project Sonoma, first proposed in 2012, has been delayed because of a number of controversies, according to the Sonoma Valley Sun. The newspaper reported in 2019 that the project has endured “intense public scrutiny, undergone several design iterations and two major environmental studies, been halted by an appeal, and inspired a ballot measure regulating the size of new hotels within city limits.”

Cheryl Sarfaty covers tourism, hospitality, health care and education. She previously worked for a Gannett daily newspaper in New Jersey and NJBIZ, the state’s business journal. Cheryl has freelanced for business journals in Sacramento, Silicon Valley, San Francisco and Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from California State University, Northridge. Reach her at cheryl.sarfaty@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4259.

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