Features

Shattuck Hotel Restoration Previewed at DAPAC Meeting

By Richard Brenneman
Friday February 09, 2007

“Our goal is to bring the 1910 feeling back to the Bay Area with 2010 amenities that appeal to the corporate traveler,” said the man who will oversee the renovation a downtown Berkeley landmark. 

Parimal “Perry” Patel briefed the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee Wednesday night on plans for the Shattuck Hotel. 

“We promise you it will be a four star hotel,” he said. “Our financing is completed and we will probably close on the property in March.” 

Renovations and a reopening could occur as soon as seven months after closing, he said. 

Patel said the city suffers from a chronic shortage of hotel rooms, with many of the areas existing 1200 rooms unsuitable for the corporate travelers the Shattuck will target. “Our goal is to bring a product in here and really make it stand out in downtown Berkeley,” he said. 

“We plan to restore the furnishings, the fixtures and the electrical equipment,” Patel said. “There will be a nice restaurant and tons and tons of emphasis on public space. And we want to carve out some meeting space as well.” 

Patel is the son of Bhupendra P. Patel, the founder of BPR properties, which owns nine California hotels and which is now making a major move in Asia. 

“We have just been granted the Best Western franchise for the next ten years for all of India, and we are planning 30 hotels there over the next five years,” he said. 

While Best Western’s U.S. line appeals to budget travelers, the overseas brand is more luxurious and considered a prestige brand, he said. 

The Shattuck Hotel sale is the second transfer of a major Berkeley-area hotel property announced in the last three weeks. On Jan. 18 came the announcement that the Claremont Resort & Spa is being purchased by Morgan Stanley Real Estate as part of the $6.6 billion buyout of CNL Hotels & Resorts.  

CNL had purchased the hotel just 35 months earlier from its previous owner, KSL Recreation Corp. 

Meanwhile, plans are moving forward for the new UC Berkeley-promoted high rise hotel planned for a block north of the Shattuck Hotel at the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street. 

Carpenter & Co., a Massachusetts hotelier, is planning a hotel, conference center and condominium complex sought by the university to house conference attendees, parents of students and fans attending university sporting events. 

 

Fast track approval 

While Roy Nee, the previous owner, had announced plans to make a major addition to the hotel at the northwestern end of the property, Patel said his plans are all included in the hotel’s existing footprint. 

Dave Fogarty of the city’s Economic Development Department said that would ease the city approval process. 

“There would be no use permit required because the work would be done within the building’s existing parameters he said. “No discretionary permit would be needed.” 

Robert Richmond of the San Luis Obispo firm of R2L Architects, the firm hired by the Patels to work on the Shattuck Hotel, made a brief appearance., 

Patel said interior designer Ziv Davis would be responsible for the interiors. “He has worked on historical buildings,” including the Langham and Britton hotels in London, ”and he has been looking at historical artifacts from the original period of the hotel. 

DAPAC member and architect Jim Novosel asked if the new design would restore the hotel’s historic entrance on Shattuck, but Patel said that wouldn’t be possible because Nee has retained ownership of the commercial frontage there. “It would be virtually impossible,” he said. 

The only planned exterior modifications would be “a new paint job” and accommodations to make the entry accessible to the disabled, he said. 

While the hotel currently includes 205 residential rooms, 32 of them have no bath facilities, and several others would have to be changed to make legally mandated alterations to stairwells, Patel said. 

No-bath rooms would be consolidated with other rooms to made suites, and the final arrangement would include a total of 160 to 170 accommodations, he said. The average room size would be about 250 to 275 square feet. 

 

 

Photograph by Richard Brenneman. 

Developer Parimal “Perry” Patel briefed the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee on his plans for the Shattuck Hotel.