Two proposals include brewpub; third is for restaurant
Two of three groups interested in turning the police department building in the downtown at Monterey Road and Main Avenue into a restaurant or brewpub said at Wednesday’s City Council meeting that they were ready to move on to the next step. Council directed staff to develop criteria for a Request For Proposal – which is the next step.
The three groups, which had filed “Statements of Interest” are Geno and Cindy Acevedo of El Toro Brewery, a Rick Page consortium that includes Page and at least two partners in the brewpub business and Pat Forst and Louie Pappas of The Bold Knight Restaurant. The Acevedos and Page attended the meeting.
Forst said Monday that she and Pappas are “very interested” in the building.
Acevedo said he would prefer that council choose the winning project based on more general plans already produced and not require costly design elevations – line sketches of a potential building. He said he understood the city had first asked for “Statements of Interest” to save everyone money.
“They (design elevations) could cost as much as $5,000,” he said. The money would be unrecoverable if the project were not chosen since they could not be transferred to another site.
Page said his group was prepared to provide such elevations.
“Just tell us the rules and we will abide,” he said.
Garrett Toy, director of Business Assistance and Housing Services for the city, said that $20,000 has been reserved from city funds to help with technical details required by all three entities during the initial planning process. Appropriate details would include a structural evaluation of the building or code analysis but not conceptual design elevations.
Toy said the Request For Proprosals would be due in August or September and the winning project possibly selected in October.
A restaurant or brewpub use would closely follow the Downtown Plan that encourages as many dining or retail establishments as possible – to increase business for all.
“The best way to get 12 restaurants in an area,” said Councilman Greg Sellers earlier in the meeting, “is to have 11.”
Toy said the city could sell the building to the highest bidder or could choose the best use for the city – a choice between price and use.
“How can we choose between a low offering price and an A plus design or a B minus design and a high price?” asked Councilwoman Hedy Chang. She said she was willing to deal with 10 percent plus or minus the market price.
Mayor Dennis Kennedy said he was willing to go for function over price.
“I want to focus on attracting people to downtown,” he said. “My number one priority is (a project’s) value to the downtown and number two is its value in price,” Kennedy said.
Chang said she was concerned about selling the property for less than its market value because both Acevedo and Page are well-known to the council. Acevedo is chair of the Planning Commission; Page sits on the Parks and Recreation Commission.
“If you sell the property at 50 percent of its value, people will say you are giving it away to friends,” Chang said.
City Manager Ed Tewes said the city does not have a current appraised value for the building, only one a year or two old.
“The Redevelopment Agency laws say you must provide a “fair re-use appraisal,” said Tewes. If there is public value gained by selling at less than full value, when the building is sold in the future for another use, it must be sold at a fair price, not the low price of the initial sale.
Tewes said the city would be open to the possibility of leasing the building, selling it outright or taking installment payments.
“The details can be fleshed out in the remaining steps,” he said. But the public needs to know that the appropriate development risks are being recognized, Tewes said.
The city is purchasing a new building at 16200 Vineyard Ave. for $9.2 million, for police use and expects a move in date in early 2004. Before it was remodeled to house the police department in 1988, the 10,363 square-foot older structure was originally the Bank of America.
