Marriott hotel planned for Riverfront development

A new, 122-room Courtyard Marriott hotel is in the works for Petaluma, the latest stirring for hotel development that has shown new life in the city in recent years.

Petaluma city staff are reviewing an application to build the hotel at the 35-acre Riverfront property at 500 Hopper Street, where Basin Street Properties, a major local developer, is seeking to develop a mixed-use project including homes, apartments and commercial space.

The hotel has long been part of the project plans, but came closer to reality as the developer filed the application for design review of the hotel in July.

“I think this is the first major brand of hotel in Petaluma besides the Sheraton and Best Western, as kind of the middle price point between the two,” said Paul Andronico, Basin Street’s general counsel. “It provides a good price point for family and friends, and others visiting Petaluma.”

At approximately 74,000 square feet, the hotel is planned to be four stories tall, according to information from Petaluma’s planning department. The hotel will include a restaurant, a pool and a fitness center, according to Petaluma Planning Manager Heather Hines.

Andronico described the hotel as the latest generation of design for Marriott.

“What’s really changed in this latest generation is that the public space has moved to more of a bistro, business center kind of concept,” he said. “The concept is to provide more of a social environment for guests.”

The design and site plan will ultimately require approval during a public hearing of the city’s planning commission, which is not yet scheduled, Hines said. It would be the third Marriott hotel in Sonoma County, following the Courtyard Marriott Santa Rosa in that city’s Railroad Square district and a Marriott luxury hotel in the town of Sonoma.

While declining to discuss the project out of concern that those early opinions would require him to recuse himself from a future vote, Bill Wolpert, a long-time planning commissioner and candidate for Petaluma City Council, spoke broadly of a need for more hotel beds in Petaluma.

“We need hotel space in Petaluma. This was already part of their master plan, so it’s not a surprise for anybody,” he said.

City Councilman Mike Healy also spoke of a need for more options in town, and of the potential for a broader economic uplift.

“This is a sector in the hotel industry that we don’t have represented in town at this point,” he said. “Having additional visitors here means more people at restaurants and shops, so overall that’s going to be helpful.”

New hotel stays in Petaluma would come with a distinct municipal revenue boost from a 10 percent tax levied on room rates, a fee that largely impacts non-residents. Talk emerged during the recession of a ballot measure to bump up the tax in order to generate more revenue, yet the effort did not go forward amid opposition from the local hotel industry.

Petaluma Mayor David Glass said that he remained a supporter of a tax increase, and said he was tepid on the Marriott project. He expressed concern that the hotel operators would also resist any increase, and claimed that the industry had an outsize influence on the city council.

“I’m less than excited,” he said, adding that the traffic impacts of the development as a whole would outweigh the benefits.

Healy argued that buyers of large blocks of rooms are sensitive to so-called transient occupancy taxes, and attributed the current tax rate to bolstering hotel occupancy in Petaluma. The tax was generating around $1 million in windfall for the city during the recession, and generates around $2 million today, he said.

In addition to the Marriott, several other hotel projects are underway in Petaluma. A planned 74-room boutique hotel in the historic factory building that once housed Sunset Line & Twine is currently undergoing seismic work, and renovations are ongoing at the Hotel Petaluma, a stately downtown structure built in 1923.

Another proposal to build a new 54-room boutique hotel off Petaluma Boulevard, however, is considered “inactive” on the city’s roster of major projects. The effort hit a roadblock over parking requirements, and faced neighborhood resistance to a proposal that would build an off-site lot nearby.

Signs advertising the hotel as “The Petaluman” recently came down at the vacant lot at 2 Petaluma Blvd. South. The developer, Ross Jones, could not be reached for comment on his plans.

The broader Riverfront development has itself been moving along in recent months. The Petaluma City Council approved a map for the project’s first phase in June, and also authorized some early grading work at the site to go forward.

Basin Street’s Andronico said major infrastructure work at the site, including utility installation and roadway improvements, is underway. The work includes modifications to make Hopper Street a two-lane roadway, along with changes to Caulfield Lane on the north end of the site.

The Riverfront project will include 47,000 square feet of office space and up to 272 housing units, including 134 single-family homes, 39 townhomes and mixed-use apartments. It will also include 7.5 acres of open space and land set aside for a future boathouse and a bridge spanning the Petaluma River.

The hotel portion of the project could break ground as soon as 2017 and open the following year, Andronico said.

El Segundo-based Comstock Homes is in agreement to build single-family homes on 134 lots at the Riverfront site. Owner and founder Bob Comstock said his company completed purchase of the lots within the last month, and that the first model homes, ranging from 1,600 to 2,600 square feet, could be open as soon as the first quarter of 2017 under ideal circumstances.

“We’ll jump right into it on production of the homes,” he said.

Wolpert, the planning commissioner, said the single-family home portion of the project was notable at a time when much of the recent development activity in Petaluma has been centered on denser types of multi-family apartment development.

“There certainly is a need for additional housing,” he said.

(Contact Eric Gneckow at eric.gneckow@arguscourier.com. On Twitter @Eric_Reports.)