Demolition work began in earnest last Thursday on the Californian Hotel, located on lower State Street two blocks from the beach, the site of the slowest moving construction project in city history. By the middle of August, only the front of the hotel should still be standing plus a couple of wing walls to help prop it up. By the end of the month, all the rubble and debris should have been hauled off and cleaned up.
The building’s innards were gutted earlier this year as part of a “soft demolition” process that took months. Removed were truckloads of asbestos material and rotted lumber. Reports that the building was rat-infested prompted City Hall inspectors to order a pre-emptive strike to ensure that adjoining property owners were not deluged by fleeing vermin. Such concerns, however, proved to be unwarranted; only a few rats were found.
The demolition constitutes necessary foreplay for construction of the project formerly known as “Entrada de Santa Barbara,” which had been touted as the largest private re-development project within city limits. Los Angeles developer Michael Rosenfeld bought the long festering Enrtrada project last year and has until next November to obtain the first of three building permits needed to construct 114 hotel rooms, nine time-share condos, 22,000 square feet of new commercial space, and a new parking garage on three separate parcels of land.
Plans for the Entrada were initially approved in 2001 — though the project dates much further back than that — but developer Bill Levy, beset by legal conflicts and financial troubles, was forced to declare bankruptcy in 2007. His lenders rejected offers to buy the project for $35 million, but after the economy tanked, were forced to sell to Rosenfeld for $8 million. The Californian was condemned by City Hall in 1990s because it had not been seismically retrofitted and was deemed unsafe for habitation. Seismic work will not start until construction on the new hotel begins.
Comments
Quite obviously, the lenders in this case should have taken the 35 million. I hope they're happy now.
GluteousMaximus (anonymous profile)
August 1, 2012 at 10:39 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Could some concideration have been given to low income housing - esp for those people how have lost jobs and are trying to get onto their feet again?
CaliforniaMax (anonymous profile)
August 1, 2012 at 11:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)
CaMax--give it a rest man
someguy (anonymous profile)
August 1, 2012 at 4:41 p.m. (Suggest removal)
used to be a happenin' place
Ken_Volok (anonymous profile)
August 1, 2012 at 7:33 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Poor Sir William Levy left Santa Barbara depressed by his business failures. He relocated to Pago Pago (nee Pango Pango) where he founded a business selling duck meat from a quanset hut. After this adventure failed he became so distraught that he set sail for Japan in a raft he built not realizing how far away Japan was. Eventually, he was rescued by the oceanliner the S.S. Louden Wainwright and was hospitalized in Kyoto for malnutrion and exposure where they had to amputate his right leg. After three months in the hospital he only received two visitors (one of them being former child star and Partridge Family member Danny Bonaduce) and became so depressed that he committed suicide by hanging himself with the cord of his I.V. bag.
cetaceanpod (anonymous profile)
August 1, 2012 at 8:50 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Rocky's served my formerly low income self very well at the time...I'm with someguy as well...
italiansurg (anonymous profile)
August 8, 2012 at 1:33 p.m. (Suggest removal)