Plans for a new hotel and retail building that the city hopes
will revitalize Hollister’s slowing downtown may not have made
headlines for a while, but those involved say the plan is making
headway.
Hollister – Plans for a new hotel and retail building that the city hopes will revitalize Hollister’s slowing downtown may not have made headlines for a while, but those involved say the plan is making headway.
Tod DuBois, a San Juan Bautista developer the Hollister Redevelopment Agency has granted exclusive rights to build on the empty lot at the corner of San Benito and Fourth streets, said Friday he’s still hard at work planning what could be the new hub of downtown.
“The key objective I’m working on right now is internal marketing, which is really getting public support for the project,” DuBois said. “Especially because the RDA may be providing some assistance for the project, the public really has to be supportive of it.”
DuBois said he has gotten feedback from the general public as well as from existing downtown merchants, who are split over whether they’d like to see a hotel or a residential complex developed on the top floors of DuBois’ four-story building. But he’s planning on doing some public speaking to make sure he’s getting “the right kind of community support.”
“We know that downtown Hollister needs some residential development, so there will be some discussion as to whether a hotel or condominiums make more sense,” he said.
Either way, the current plan involves some sort of retail business on the ground floor, residential or hotel use on the top floors, and a fifth-story tower in the corner of the building to be used for office space.
“I took a look at the Cooper house in downtown Santa Cruz and I had an architect redesign the Cooper house to fit on the site (in Hollister),” DuBois said. “The Cooper house has been a successful element in downtown Santa Cruz. If they can build it there, they can build it here.”
But before he can build anything, DuBois will have to wait out the building moratorium instituted by the state in 2002 after a 15 million-gallon sewer spill in Hollister. And because the only thing the city knows for certain is that the new sewer plant won’t be completed by its Oct. 2005 deadline, DuBois’ ability to find business owners ready to wait it out with him has been difficult
“It’s difficult for everybody involved when obviously the building moratorium hurts,” said RDA Director Bill Avera. “It’s difficult for him (DuBois) to find potential tenants in a building that they don’t know when it’s (construction) actually going to be started.”
Still, DuBois said, he has been approached by entrepreneurs who’d like to open a day spa on the 60,000 square foot building’s ground floor and has spoken with representatives from national chains like Borders bookstore in the past.
Another potential glitch is finding financial backers for the $10 million project, although DuBois said he wasn’t worried about that just yet.
“I’ve looked into financing this type of project and this type of project absolutely can be financed. But the drivers are two things: Is it going to be built and when, and the other is the tenant demand,” he said. “It’s just like a home mortgage. If you’ve got a good job, you can get a mortgage. If the tenants are good, you can get financial backing.”
DuBois has a one-year Exclusive Negotiating Agreement with the city, which began in September when he was awarded the project. The city has an option to extend the ENA after a year, DuBois said. And their decision wouldn’t be based on whether the project had sufficient financial backing, he added, but whether or not both the city and DuBois were happy with the way the project was coming along.
“He’s (DuBois) defining a little bit more about what the basic project is, giving us more information on the floor plans, to at least kind of give us an idea of what he’s envisioning there,” Avera said. “There’s definitely work going towards the direction of getting the project done.”
Jessica Quandt covers politics for the Free Lance. Reach her at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or at [email protected].
