Green light for Spinsters Sisters to build boutique hotel

The owners of the popular Spinster Sisters restaurant got the go-ahead Tuesday to build a boutique hotel next to their building in the lively South A Street neighborhood.

The City Council approved the rezoning needed to allow a two-story, 9-unit hotel and retail space to be constructed on the site of an existing residential duplex.

“I think this is really good news for the neighborhood,” said Giovanni Cerrone, general manager and partner in the 3-year-old restaurant. “We need to see a few more things happen here to make the area a little more dynamic.”

The council approved the rezoning from medium-density residential to general commercial with little comment beyond Mayor John Sawyer thanking the investors and praising the “creative and attractive project.”

One of the investors in the project is New York City-based developer Eric Anderson. Cerrone said they hope to get construction underway in November and to be open by the fall of 2016.

The hotel will be the latest addition to a Juilliard Park area neighborhood that has transformed itself in recent years from an overlooked island between Highway 101 and Santa Rosa Avenue to a vibrant destination for local food, art and entertainment.

The exterior will have an industrial feel, with corrugated metal, wood and concrete, he said. The rooms, which will rent for between $160 and $215 per night, will be loft-style with kitchenettes, to encourage visitors seeking longer-term stays, he said.

The restaurant already has a few existing rooms on its second floor that are rented out on Airbnb, and visitors often stay for extended periods, Cerrone said.

The project will also have some retail on the first floor, likely selling food products and possibly to-go items from the restaurant. The space could also host rotating winery events.

Parking was an issue for the project, which proposed just two on-site spaces where the city codes would typically require 16.

But its location in a special zoning district designed to encourage transit-oriented development around the future Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit station provided relief from that rule, allowing the limited parking to be sufficient. There will also be nine on-street spaces in front of the hotel.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @srcitybeat.