October’s Over: Reggie Jackson has scrapped a deal to build a conference center on the prime Seaside real estate that houses some of his cars. Nic Coury
Seaside Hotel Strikes Out
Reggie Jackson’s team lets deal with city expire.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
It was supposed to be the centerpiece of Seaside’s downtown revival: a 250-room hotel and conference center at Del Monte and Canyon Del Rey boulevards, on land owned by Baseball Hall of Famer and Carmel resident Reggie Jackson.
But now, the so-called Landmark project is off the team. The developers allowed their exclusive negotiating agreement with the city to expire Jan. 15.
“I think they said as things get better there’s a possibility they’ll revisit it,” Assistant City Manager Jill Anderson says. “It’s my understanding that the economy was a major issue.”
City Manager Ray Corpuz is less optimistic. “We gave [the ENA] several extensions and there wasn’t a request to renew it,” he says. “Usually that means the developer has decided not to move forward.”
The hotel’s 6-acre blueprint extended beyond Jackson’s corner lot into a number of neighboring parcels, including what is now under construction as a small shopping center on Canyon Del Rey. Landmark’s attempt to purchase that property “apparently didn’t work out,” Corpuz says. “That was one of the roadblocks.”
The Landmark developers could not be reached.
The hotel was an owner-initiated proposal, so the city isn’t looking for a project to take its place. Instead, Anderson says, planners are preparing to solicit proposals for a library and parking garage in the West Broadway Urban Village redevelopment area. The city’s also courting a retail developer for the Main Gate parcel on the former Fort Ord.
Corpuz is hoping a Local Coastal Plan – up for approval within a few months – will help grease the wheels for future development. An LCP consistent with California Coastal Commission policies would authorize the city to do its own administrative work for projects in the coastal zone.
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