First look at new Sonoma hotels

For the first time since last year’s defeat of Measure B, which would have limited the size of new hotels in Sonoma, two hotel projects are now active and in the pipeline, the Sun has learned.

The Anderson Hotel: Developer/lobbyist Darius Anderson is ready to submit revised hotel plans to the city for the 100 block of West Napa Street. The plans have been radically altered since the previous plans were withdrawn before the Measure B election. Hotel parking will now be largely underground instead of at ground level. The number of rooms remains the same, at 59, in several three-story structures sitting above the below-ground parking. The event center has been eliminated entirely, a truck loading dock added within the project area, and egress to First Street West available from the underground parking. The offices of the “Index Tribune,” which Anderson owns, will not be torn down but renovated instead; the old printing plant building will be removed. The tin-sided antique store will also be removed and replaced with a new building. An EIR will be done, and the project will go through the usual planning and design-approvals.

The Truck and Auto Lot Hotel: Developer Owen Wilson plans a 35-room hotel — along with some residential housing and an public market modeled on Napa’s popular Ox Box Market — on the property at the northeast corner of Broadway and MacArthur. His investor group also has an escrow pending on the Union 76 Gas station and lot across the street: the gas station will remain but the lot which extends to First Street West behind the station will be used for valet hotel parking. No plans have yet been submitted, but discussions with city department heads have taken place.