By Clyde Noel
Town Crier Correspondent
A revised staff analysis of the financial advantages to the city of the First and Main street development was presented at the Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Committee last Monday. The City Council met June 12 to make a decision, and this report indicates the financial feasibility details have changed.
Laura MacEachen, economic development coordinator for the city of Los Altos, said the primary components of the financial impact to the city include the one-time payment for the value of the First and Main site, sales tax receipts resulting from the increased activity on the site, and, if a hotel is built, the transient occupancy taxes collected.
The Kelly Associates, with Joie de Vivre, hotel proposal includes a 6,500 sq. ft. restaurant. The Roxy Rapp/Innkeeper Associates proposal is to build a hotel with a 1,500 sq. ft. restaurant and 600 sq. ft. of ancillary retail inside the hotel.
The Swenson/Camera Cinema plan includes a condominium project and 13,500 sq. ft. of retail development along First Street.
The Kelly Associates/Joie de Vivre hotel proposal is estimated to generate $40,000 in sales tax receipts annually, resulting from sales at the restaurant.
The 95-room facility with an average room rate of $210 will provide an annual transient occupancy tax revenue of $465,000.
The Roxy Rapp/Innkeeper Associates project includes 85 rooms with an occupancy rate of 82 percent with the average room rate of $270. This hotel will generate an estimated $550,000 in occupancy tax revenue.
The Swenson theater/condominium project, which includes 13,500 sq. ft. of retail development along First Street, is projected to return a total between $50,000 and $80,000 annually from sales tax receipts.
Since the city owns the land, one-time land payments can be anywhere from $1.55 million to $3 million, depending on parking and joint development with the Safeway property.
General comments at the economic development meeting indicate the council will be looking at a different ballgame than when the project started.
Council member John Moss: “I don’t think we went at it the right way. Developers want to put too much in that little corner. Let’s see what the people want to put there.”
Restaurateur Roger Brunello: “Los Altos doesn’t have a chance for a prestige restaurant in our lifetime.
“A 6,500 sq. ft. restaurant is a destination restaurant, and that will go to Palo Alto.”
MacEachen: “Restaurants are a precarious business, and many don’t make it. National restaurants are very choosy where they go.”
Council member King Lear: “The goal is to bring more business to downtown in the evenings. These plans do that. High on the list is to solve the parking problem.”
Brunello: “First Street retail doesn’t make sense. Having big-story monuments at the entrance to Los Altos at two locations off Foothill Expressway is not my idea of Los Altos.”
