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YWCA Building Restoration Returns to Drawing Board
News May 24, 2017
-Courtesy photo
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Future discussions regarding the restoration of the YWCA building will be highly-dependent on community input and will focus on how to enhance the Civic Center as a whole. – Photo by Terry Miller / Beacon Media News
By Gus Herrera
Council Approves 500K to Stabilize Building’s Integrity for Time Being
Much to the delight of a packed council chambers, Kimpton’s role in the restoration of Pasadena’s historic Julia Morgan-designed YWCA building has come to a close.
After council voted 5-2 in favor of Council Member Victor Gordo’s motion to table the hotel project for further discussion on April 3, the controversial venture returned as the main event of last Monday’s agenda.
This time, council was presented with three alternative options:
1. Use the structure to house city offices.
2. Move forward with a smaller Kimpton hotel.
3. Undertake a new process to determine the best use/project for the building.
In the end, council unanimously approved a motion aligned with option number three: first the YWCA building restoration will head to the city’s economic development and technology committee (EDTECH) for a “framed discussion,” after which the topic will brought before a citizen-based Civic Center implementation task force, under a six-month deadline.
Council hopes that starting from scratch will allow EDTECH to narrow the scope of options for the historic building through a combination of rigorous public outreach and research. Additionally, discussions regarding the best potential use for the building will focus on how to enhance the Civic Center as a whole.
Following the purchase of the building in 2012, for approximately $8.3 million, the city set two primary goals: save the deteriorating structure and recuperate its funds.
One year after issuing a request for proposal, the city entered into an exclusive contract with Kimpton – a developer with a particularly strong reputation for restoring old buildings into world-class modern hotels.
Theoretically, the city was on track to achieve both of its objectives, but, as the years went by, public opposition grew and the project seemed magnetically-attracted to controversy. The final straw came when it was revealed that, since 2014, a number of factors have increased the project cost from $53.89 million to nearly $81.71 million in 2017 – an increase of approximately $27.82 million.
Studies showed that the increase was caused by a variety of line items, from heightened construction costs, to the need to pay prevailing wages. As a result, the developer requested that the city provide subsidies in the form of a rent-free first floor and free parking – a request which ultimately stalled the project following the April 3 public hearing.
Much like April’s hearing, this week’s meeting brought the opposition out in full force. In addition to the 65 letters of correspondence the city received for the item (64 of which were opposed to the project), the energized public comment portion saw over 20 speakers testify their grievances towards the Kimpton plan.
Although some residents spoke in favor of using the YWCA building as a means to consolidate office space for various city departments, the majority of voices agreed that the Kimpton saga must come to a close and the city should indeed return to the drawing board.
In order to secure the building’s integrity for the time being, council approved half a million dollars in the city’s capital improvement plan to stabilize the structure as talks proceed.
Despite voting against tabling the matter in April, Mayor Terry Tornek agreed that the city’s relationship with Kimpton had run its course, “I apologize to Kimpton … we let them go down the road a long way here and now we’re going to cut them off … the string has run out on that project, we need to regroup and take another look.”
Mayor Tornek and Council Member Masuda, the two dissenting votes back in April, had a change of heart and agreed that the city must start from scratch.
– Photo by Terry Miller
Similarly, Council Member Gene Masuda, the second dissenting vote back in April, also changed his mind, “even last time I voted for the project, I didn’t want subsidies, yet I supported the project. I’m now open to re-evaluating the project … I support sending it to a taskforce [for] a transparent discussion … to provide the best possible project.”
