Proposed Sebastopol hotel wins three-year extension, builders hope to wait out high interest rates

With permits expiring, planned boutique hotel wins three-year agreement as developers hope financing coalesces.

photo credit: Courtesy GoogleMaps
The site of a promised hotel remains vacant years after approval.

Long-planned as the future site of a swank 66-room hotel, a vacant lot in Sebastopol remains a weedy patch behind a cyclone fence, hopefully not forever.

It's the saga of the Sebastopol Hotel, a $90 million dollar boutique hotel viewed by backers as a panacea for the financially struggling small city.

In addition to sorely needed property and room taxes, it is hoped vacationing guests bring in more sales tax revenue, while the new edifice fills a hole in the city's streetscape.

Councilmember Sandra Maurer told colleagues this week the question she hears most often from constituents is a form of 'will it ever happen'?

"It's been seven years since it's been approved," Maurer said, before pointedly asking developers "What I'd like to hear from you is why this is taking so long."

The project was awarded a building permit in 2017.

Project manager Daniele Petroni of Piazza Hospitality Group, the firm behind the proposal said there has been no wavering.

"It's a project that we are heavily invested in, right? To date we have invested over 8 million dollars in this project in terms of land acquisition, architectural fees, all the drawings, the consultant fees," Petroni said.

With approvals expiring, Piazza sought a one or two year development agreement, effectively an extension.

"The death of this project, I think, would be fairly catastrophic for us, so when you ask us about priorities, we are absolutely prioritizing this project, it's just a very tricky moment, well, a sequence of very tricky moments as it relates to the fires, the pandemic and now to this era of very, very high interest rates," Petroni explained.

Councilmember Neysa Hinton said she felt Piazza's concerns were valid enough.

"I think they probably want to get it built as soon as possible, so we might as well extend it for three years, and I agree it's going to be good for the community."

After some discussion, a three-year agreement was approved on a three-nothing vote, with two members of the council absent.