Developer proposes 36-room Sonoma hotel, gourmet market

A Southern California developer is bringing forward to Sonoma city planning officials a proposal that calls for a 36-room boutique hotel, 15 townhouses and a gourmet marketplace — a project that could raise some of the same questions Sonoma residents confronted last year in a special election on hotel size limits within the city.

The development would be built on a former auto dealership site on Broadway and East MacArthur Street, an area that residents consider a key entry into their historic city. Sonoma Gateway Commons Ltd., a partnership formed by developer Owen Smith, purchased the property this summer for $1.95 million.

Although the nearly 2-acre site on the southern end of town needs to be redeveloped, Councilman David Cook said it's too soon to tell whether Smith's project will be a good fit for the city.

'It's a gateway into Sonoma. Right now, it's an old car dealership and it's rundown,' he said about the property at 870 Broadway, which had been in and out of escrow for nearly four years. It was considered for a slew of projects, including a Trader Joe's store, a Walgreens and an office complex.

'It's way too early to tell if it's a good thing or bad thing,' Cook added about the project, which is going before the city's Planning Commission for discussion during a public study session tonight.

Smith previously worked for the Kessler Collection, a hotel operator that abandoned an option to develop the Broadway property after a controversial ballot measure aimed at limiting the size of new hotels in the city to no more than 25 rooms failed last November by 124 votes.

It was a proposal from developer Darius Anderson to build a boutique hotel less than a block from the historic Sonoma Plaza that sparked the ballot measure. After holding several community forums, Anderson, a principal of Sonoma Media Investments, which owns The Press Democrat, submitted revised plans this summer, cutting his proposed boutique hotel to nearly half of its original dimensions, albeit still with 59 rooms.

Smith said that Kessler 'never got too far' with its plans to develop the former auto dealership site. But, he added, the proposal that planning commissioners received this week for the Sonoma Gateway Commons project has been 'largely popular' with residents who attended two forums hosted by the developer earlier this year.

'It's a very important piece of property for Sonoma,' said Smith, president of Del Mar-based Sunlever Corp. 'What we didn't want to do was go at it on our own and go in a direction that the people of Sonoma didn't (want).'

The project's retail feature is the 5,600-square-foot, barn-style marketplace, Smith said.

The so-called Culinary Promenade would promote the area's produce and local artisanal foods while showcasing Sonoma's historic features, according to the company. It would look similar to the Oxbow Public Market in downtown Napa.

Retractable barn doors would allow vendors to spill over into the outdoor space. Outside, a community herb and vegetable garden would be built.

To the east of the market, townhouses would be built. The homes facing Broadway would be three stories high, while the townhouses along MacArthur would be two stories, according to the plans. They would average 1,200 square feet.

The nearly 34,000-square-foot, three-story boutique hotel would be built on the far northeast end of the property and would have easy access to the market. The developer also plans to build a raised patio to give guests a view of the creek behind the hotel.

The company also is looking at purchasing a service station across the street on Broadway. It would be renovated in a country- store style, and the exterior space would provide additional space for a valet parking.

Smith said it's too soon to tell what the cost would be or how long it would take to build the project.

'That would be speculative at this point,' he said.

He said he already has heard from local investors interested in backing the project, as well as businesses that want to sell their goods at the market. But he declined to provide names.

'We have a lot of local interest,' Smith said.

The Planning Commission's study session will include no decision on the project. When it will come back to the commission remained unclear this week. The timing depends on the preliminary feedback the developer gets tonight from planning commissioners, said Rob Gjestland, the city's senior planner.

You can reach Staff Writer Eloísa Ruano González at 521-5458 or eloisa.gonzalez@pressdemocrat.com.