From the Napa Valley Register
By Janelle Wetzstein
Developers of the long-anticipated Archer Napa hotel in downtown Napa were pleased last week when the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission approved their request to begin construction on the site of the historic Merrill building.
“We are very happy with the unanimous decision from the commission,” said Kevin Teague, representing the development team. “The building’s design was a result of listening to both historic architects and community voices on what’s best for featuring the Merrill’s building.”
Last week’s hearing did not determine the design or project merits of the proposed five-story hotel development. Instead, its focus was to gain city approval to raze all but the the ornate terra-cotta First Street facade of the Merrill’s building in the 1200 block of First Street.
Built in 1929 by Samuel P. Gordon, the structure was originally home to a Safeway, and later went through several retailers before Merrill’s Drug Store set up shop in the 1960s. Since Merrill’s Drug closed its doors in 1994, the building has remained largely vacant.
The Merrill’s building is listed as a local landmark on the city’s Historical Resource Inventory and is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, though it is not on the list.
When hotel developer LodgeWorks submitted an application to build a luxury seven-story hotel last year on the Merrill’s site, community members voiced concern with the project’s height and scope. In response, LodgeWorks President Mike Daood later came back with a revised five-story hotel proposal with a larger footprint that would incorporate the Merrill’s building’s historic aspects into its design. The project is expected to cost $70 million.
In February, LodgeWorks submitted its revamped plans to the city, detailing the hotel, which would include a 7,000-square-foot rooftop lounge, a first-floor restaurant, up to seven retail spaces, several event spaces and an outdoor terrace. The main entrance to the hotel is proposed for First Street.
According to city staff, the Merrill’s building’s historic facade can be restored on the First Street side of the structure.
“But not along Coombs Street,” Robert Reber, a senior planner with the city, said last week. “There were considerations about the facade along Coombs Street, but it has almost no historic integrity left.”
Cultural heritage commissioners said at the hearing that they were pleased with LodgeWorks’ plans to restore the siding along First Street, and understood the company’s decision not to do the same on the Coombs Street portion of the structure. Ultimately, the commission unanimously granted the permit and expressed an interest in putting the property on the National Register of Historic Places at some point.
Members of the public who attended the hearing showed both support and disdain for the proposed hotel. Longtime Napa resident Dorothy Salmon said that she applauded the developer’s historic preservation efforts.
“This is a very difficult project and a very difficult hotel, so I would ask the commission to allow the developers to go forward,” she said. “I was here when everyone said that no hotels would ever come to Napa — that St. Helena would always be the center of everything. Today, the market has come to us and it’s better than any of us could have imagined.”
While other Napa residents echoed Salmon’s sentiments, including Napa Planning Commissioner Gordon Huether, not everyone shared such excitement. Some residents still worried about the height and size of the hotel, but were told that the hearing was not the place to bring such concerns.
“The entire hotel project will go before the Planning Commission on June 19,” Reber said at the hearing. “That will be the time for everyone to voice their opinions on the design and the use.”
Meanwhile, a representative of a Bay Area hotel workers union came to the meeting and expressed concern over the project’s historic preservation efforts — an apparent effort to undermine the hotel, which does not plan to become unionized.
“We frequently weigh in on hotel developments,” said Ty Hudson, a Unite Here Union Local 2850 representative who lives in Oakland. “Obviously, this is a historic hearing, so I’ll keep my comments confined to that area.”
Hudson said he didn’t believe granting the certificate of appropriateness was right, since he said it didn’t comply with the city’s 2012 Downtown Specific Plan for development in historic structures — a contention that residents and community members who sat on the downtown specific plan steering committee refuted.
“I’m kind of surprised, and kind of not surprised, that we have someone from an Oakland union telling us what time it is in our town,” said Huether. “This union is here to get the neighbors riled up and that’s it.”
Teague, who sat on the Downtown Specific Plan committee, said he believed the project did comply with recommended standards.
“This is one of the most vetted historic issues I’ve ever been involved in,” he said.
John Salmon, Dorothy Salmon’s husband, also condemned Hudson’s comments as out of place and irrelevant to the discussion at hand.
“With this project, what you see is the Merrill building,” he said. “You don’t see a hotel, which is what Napa wants.”
The project will continue on to the Napa Planning Commission on June 19. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in Napa City Council chambers, at 955 School St.
“We look forward to completing the process and having the Archer hotel fit seamlessly into downtown Napa,” Teague said.