$50-Million Downtown Project OKd : Huntington Beach Plan Includes Hotel, Shops, Restaurants

The plan to develop a 300-room hotel and at least 90,000 square feet of shops and restaurants in downtown Huntington Beach--including an expanded city pier--received unanimous City Council approval Monday night.

About 100 people gathered in council chambers to hear details of the $50-million project, the first step in a redevelopment plan that will transform the downtown appearance from one of surf shops and ice cream parlors to high-rise hotels and scores of specialty shops.

Council members expressed few reservations about the plans proposed by Huntington Pacifica Development. “I don’t have any problems with the project” said Councilman Robert Mandic. “If it looks like (that) in the long term, it’ll be a great benefit.”

Councilwoman Ruth Finley said she preferred to see the development carried on farther inland. Any special tax revenue generated from the project should be funneled into street improvements and parking areas to serve future development, she said.

Little Opposition

There was little public opposition to the project, with most speakers urging approval. As council members punched in their electronic votes, the crowd gave the seven-member council a standing ovation.

“It’s a complete transformation that will start moving this area from the negative side of the ledger to the positive,” said City Administrator Charles Thompson, comparing the project to similar ones in San Diego and Long Beach.

Huntington Pacifica owner Richard Schwartz has obtained purchase rights on two-thirds of the affected area and said he expects construction to begin in fall, 1986. Completion will take about two years.

The first phase of development will encompass a five-block area on both sides of Pacific Coast Highway just south of Main Street, as well as the Huntington Beach Pier.

Plans call for:

- A 300-room, six- to eight-story, “first-class” hotel at Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway.

- A 15,000-square-foot retail commercial building on the same block.

- At least 75,000 square feet of retail development south of Pacific Coast Highway that would feature four restaurants, shops and a 500-space parking structure. Huntington Pacifica will pay an estimated $2.5 million to expand the pier by at least 25,000 square feet to include part of the development.

- An approximate 20,000-square-foot public plaza in the hotel, commercial building area and a pedestrian crossing over Pacific Coast Highway between the two areas.

“The beach itself,” Thompson stressed, “will remain as it is.”

He said he didn’t expect the project to bring more people into the area--about 10 million people already visit the city each year--but more will stay and spend their money and generate sales tax income.

The city agreed to return all bed taxes from the hotel for the first 10 years of operation and 77% of the special taxes levied on the redevelopment area during the same period to the developer. Huntington Pacifica will pay all land acquisition costs. Total income from the project is projected at about $2.7 million in the 10th year, said Mike Adams, city planner.

Huntington Beach has budgeted $1 million for relocation of businesses in the area and $1.35 million for installation of new water and utility lines. Demolition or substantial restructuring of downtown buildings is necessary in any case, according to a 1981 city survey that found 48 of 50 structures to be seismically unsafe.