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6-10-2004
East San Rafael hotel a step closer to reality
Fred
Grange is near the end of the longest journey of his life.
With construction bids for an 85-room Hampton Inn
& Suites turned in and groundbreaking on the horizon, that journey - to
develop a two-acre parcel on East Francisco Boulevard near the Richmond-San
Rafael Bridge - is almost over.
"This is like getting to the last few weeks
of college," he said. "I'm almost there."
Grange has owned and developed property in East
San Rafael for more than 30 years, but his persistent attempts to develop his
property near Pelican Way have faced decades of obstacles.
A proposed high-end mini-storage facility was
rebuffed.
Ditto for a subsequent plan to construct a
showroom for McPhail's appliances.
Grange then proposed putting a hotel on the property,
across the street from Interstate 580, and got the nod from the San Rafael
Planning Commission and City Council in September 2001, five years after first
proposing it.
The hotel proposal convinced city officials that
the area could handle the increased traffic, which is the primary issue facing
any proposed development in East San Rafael, Community Development Director Bob
Brown said.
"Hotels have very few trips during commute
hours and they generate a lot of revenue for the city so, in that sense, hotels
have fared fairly well," he said.
But the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks happened only four
days after the approval, and the demand for new hotels in the area evaporated
as travel plummeted. Questions arose about Grange's ability to garner a
franchise agreement with Hilton, and his financing dried up.
Nearly three years later, sitting in the
second-floor conference room of the Marin Builders' Association yesterday
afternoon, Grange accepted six bids from construction firms for the $10
million-plus project, and he could barely contain his enthusiasm.
"These are some great bids," he said,
perusing offers from Midstate Construction Corp. in Petaluma and Hearn Pacific
in Vacaville. The low bid came from HCRD, a Davis-based construction firm, but
a detailed analysis of the bids, particularly the conditions attached to them
by the contractors, could affect Grange's decision, he said.
Grange said he was confident the hotel would
succeed, noting that the four-story hotel will be surrounded by two-story
buildings right near the entrance to Marin from the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.
"This will be the gateway building into Marin
from the east," he said.
That high visibility, and the involvement of a
proven business-oriented hotel brand, drew the attention of John Manderfeld,
whose Marin Management company will operate and manage the hotel when it opens
in late 2005. Groundbreaking is planned for later this summer.
Manderfeld said he expects the hotel to compete
for business with the Courtyard by Marriott in Larkspur, and to benefit from
its location right off the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.
"We expect to get a lot of business out of
Richmond," he said. "It's a very high-profile site."
Hampton Inn & Suites is owned by Hilton
Hospitality. A Hilton spokesman could not be reached for comment yesterday.
The hotel, which will feature a business center
with computers and office equipment and broadband Internet connections in every
room, will be the first new business hotel in Marin in several years. The
Courtyard by Marriott and the Embassy Suites in Terra Linda have competed in
that market for the past few years.
Room rates will range from $90 on weekends to $120
on weekdays, according to Grange.
Manderfeld said the hotel industry in Marin is
beginning to rebound after several difficult post-9/11 years and after the
dot-com bust drastically reduced the amount of high-technology conventions in
the Bay Area. Manderfeld noted that although room rates are rising slowly,
occupancy rates have improved.
"The hotel industry nationwide is definitely
in recovery," he said.
Grange couldn't be happier.
"It's taken some time," he said.
"But now that we're getting closer to handing much of it over, and our
involvement as developer and owner will decrease significantly. It's just exhilarating."
Contact Jim Welte via e-mail at jwelte@marinij.com