Suisun City Considers Reservations For a New Hotel

Suisun City Considers Reservations For a New Hotel
By Ian Thompson

SUISUN CITY - Suisun City may finally get a 102-room hotel next to Driftwood Drive if a proposal shown tonight to the Suisun City Council checks out.

"It is very exciting," Suisun City Manager Suzanne Bragdon said. "It is a critical asset for the community. It is a great fit for Suisun City."

The proposed limited-service hotel targets business travelers and executive teams that are looking for a place to hold small meetings.

Bragdon declined to say who the hotel's developer is, but said the developer has a good track record with building and running hotels.

If approved by the planning commission and the City Council next year, the hotel will be built on a 2-acre site just east of One Harbor Center, according to Bragdon.

"We hope to be able to go to the council and the planning commission by May and get approvals," Bragdon said.

Getting a hotel here was a critical part of the city's agreement with Main Street West Partners, its master developer for the Old Town.

"It was one of the things in the agreement," Bragdon said. "Before they could develop one of the (other) parcels for high-end housing, they needed to get a hotel here."

Today's meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. in the Suisun City Council chambers, will include a presentation about what is being proposed, what it could bring to Suisun City and the challenges ahead.

If built, the hotel would likely mean a big infusion of money for city general fund coffers.

Once established, it is expected to generate $320,000 a year in transient occupancy taxes and $10,000 in property taxes, according to Redevelopment Agency Al da Silva.

The hotel would also create 25 full-time jobs and generate more customers for the downtown area's restaurants, since it won't have a restaurant of its own.

"It is a project that will diversify the local tax base," da Silva said. "That's something that we don't have in Suisun City."

This is the second hotel proposal for that area that has landed in front of the City Council.

In 2000, a group called Suisun Hotel Partners Ltd. under hotel developer Chet Patel of Livermore proposed building a $7 million, three-story, 100-room Quality Inn & Suites hotel on the vacant lot off Driftwood Drive and Civic Center Boulevard.

An increase in construction costs and troubles with construction unions doomed that project which finally fell apart in 2002.

The Redevelopment Agency appropriated $1 million of its own money to that project for water, sewer and off-site improvements as an inducement to get the hotel built. The agency also reimbursed Patel for the cost of filling and grading the site.

Suisun City was once home to half a dozen hotels at the turn of the century. One by one, they succumbed to fire, with the last one, the Mayfield Hotel, burning up in the mid-1950s.

Reach Ian Thompson at 427-6976 or at ithompson@dailyrepublic.net.

At a glance
Who: Suisun City Council
What: Presentation on proposed hotel
When: 7 p.m. today
Where: Suisun City Council chamber, 701 Civic Center Blvd.
Info: 421-7300