Ritz-Carlton proposes large Napa hotel site

By KEVIN COURTNEY
Register Staff Writer

The planned Ritz-Carlton resort at First Street and Silverado Trail will be a much grander project than the hotel first approved for the location five years ago.

By acquiring the commercial frontage along First, the new developers have expanded the site from eight to 11 acres, creating room for a more spacious resort with restaurants and a retail “village.”

This will be Napa’s first five-star hotel and the most expensive private development in city history, said Cassandra Walker, the city’s economic development manager.

The developer, River House Land Company, will be spending “upwards of $200 million” to turn a site where garbage trucks were once stored into a world class resort, Mayor Jill Techel said.

Ritz-Carlton is an iconic brand symbolizing luxury the world over. There are currently 66 Ritz Carlton hotels and resorts, with new ones opening in Beijing, Dubai, Jakarta ... and in 2010, potentially downtown Napa’s Oxbow District.

The city’s planning department is beginning to process the Ritz-Carlton application, with the possibility of public hearings in early 2008, said Mike Allen, a city planner.

The River House Land Company is an offshoot of Continental Real Estate Companies of Florida. Efforts to interview the developer this week were unsuccessful.

The developer first acquired the eight acres for which a 351-room Napa Resort and Spa was approved in 2002. Because of the tourism downturn after Sept. 11, 2001, the hotel was never built.

The new developer now owns the adjacent properties along First from Silverado Trail to the Napa River, controlling the entire northwest corner of the intersection.

The project is a blend of old and new elements arranged to take advantage of the additional acreage, Allen said. The riverfront resort will still have 351 rooms and nearly 21,000 square feet of banquet and meeting rooms, but will also have stores along First, Allen said.

The project will have a spa and two pools. Some rooms will be sold as condominiums that made available to the pool of hotel rooms, Walker said.

While many of the earlier project’s environmental assessment remain valid, the applicant is having to do new traffic studies and seek another development clearance from the Napa County Flood Control District, Allen said. A public trail and low flood wall are planned along the hotel’s river frontage.

The original Napa Resort and Spa was approved by the City Council on a 4-1 vote, with the anticipation that it could generate $1 million to $2 million in annual revenue for the city. A Ritz, with its higher priced rooms, would produce more in taxes.

In 2002, neighbors complained about the feared traffic impacts, environmentalists said the project was too massive for the riverfront, while others said the Italianate architecture didn’t fit Napa.

The main entrance to the new project would be off of First, where Juarez Street is now located, Allen said. The architecture is now “Craftsmanesque,” with wood and stone accents that are very Napa Valley, he said.

The hotel buildings are three- and four-story, with the tallest units at the northern end of the property where they would be less visible to traffic, Allen said. Nearly all 479 parking spaces would be underground.

The Ritz-Carlton would have Napa’s largest room for banquets and school proms, accommodating about 600 people, Walker said.

As a luxury brand, the Ritz-Carlton would give Napa a full price spectrum of hotels. Napa has medium priced hotels like the Embassy Suites and the Marriott, but nothing in Ritz-Carlton’s league, she said.

The Ritz would help downtown and the Oxbow District to achieve a “critical mass” of visitors to support restaurants and stores, Walker said.

Copia was the Oxbow District pioneer, opening in 2001 in what had been a rundown area with little public recognition. Two hotels, the 108-room River Terrace Inn and soon the 160-room Westin Verasa, have followed, with the Oxbow Public Market opening later this year.

As a worldwide symbol of high-end tourism, a Ritz-Carlton would validate downtown Napa as a destination of the first order, Techel said. The prospect of a Ritz creates yet more interest in central Napa, she said.

Another 142-room hotel is about to break ground on First Street near City Hall. The Avia, formerly called the Inn at Town Center, is currently removing toxic soil traced to a former gas station.

Napa Valley Register Copyright © 2009