Sunday, July 15, 2007


Jul. 15, 2007 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) --
Five months after Seaside City officials extended an exclusive negotiating agreement with Main Gate's project developers, the development group is asking permission to enlarge the hotel and move its location.

Developers have also changed the name to The Strand at Seaside.

If the City Council, acting as the redevelopment agency, approves design changes to the 740,000-square-foot project at its July 19 meeting, it would create new agreements with developer Clark Realty Capital and General Growth Properties. (NYSE:GGP)

The new design would created two projects, a hotel and a retail complex. Each would require separate agreements, said Diana Ingersoll, deputy city manager of resources management services for Seaside.

'The hotel is no longer attached to the mall,' she said. 'Based on the changes, the developers have come back to us and told us that they think these are separate projects.'

The new design calls for a full-service, 250-room hotel instead of the 180-room boutique hotel in the current plan. The new hotel will house a 26,000 square foot spa, according to city staff.

The new hotel would be built near First Avenue and Second Street, instead of near the proposed shopping area, which developers refer to as a 'lifestyle mall.'

The Strand would still include a 12,000 square foot conference center, and 30 resort style 'casitas.'

The new design leaves open the possibility of building a cinema in place of a department store in an area near Lightfighter Drive. A decision on whether to keep the department store or build the cinema will be made later this year, Ingersoll said.

The new development agreement, when it is signed, will expire Feb. 18, the date the current agreement would have expired, Ingersoll said. It will be bound by the same conditions, Ingersoll said.

The city approved a first exclusive negotiation agreement with the developer in October 2005, but it expired in November. City officials extended the agreement another three months, then for another year in February, said Ingersoll.

Ingersoll called the new design plans a 'refining of the process.'

'It has evolved. Where you originally had a 180-room hotel now, we are talking about a full service hotel,' Ingersoll said.

The project was originally a 550,000 square foot project, but later came to include a boutique hotel, a spa facility, conference center, and resort style 'casitas.' The project still calls for upscale retail shops and restaurants.

An environmental impact report on the site is expected to be finished about the time the agreement date expires. Final terms of a deal between the developer and the city are expected to be completed by then.

Andre Briscoe can be reached at 646-4436 or  abriscoe@montereyherald.com.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0124-18142337


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