Santa Ana : State Aide Backs Loan to Refurbish Old Hotel

State Department of Housing and Community Development Director Susan A. DeSantis put her seal of approval on a recommendation for a $1-million, low-interest loan to a group hoping to rehabilitate the former Santa Ana Hotel as housing for low-income residents.

A partnership of Santa Ana developer Donald Krotee and the Feedback Foundation, an organization that oversees housing and other social programs for seniors and low-income people, announced two weeks ago that a state committee evaluating a number of applicants for the loan program had recommended their project for funding. The HCD director normally approves the committee’s recommendations, department spokeswoman Julie Stewart said.

City Council approval of the project and an additional loan will be needed before the hotel, which has been closed for more than two years because of housing code deficiencies, can be rehabilitated, Krotee said.

Stewart said that DeSantis approved more than $3.9 million Monday for several projects in California to rehabilitate old hotels for low-income housing. Other projects awarded funds were the Lodi Hotel, $1 million; the Porterville Hotel, $850,000; the St. Claire Hotel in San Francisco, $410,000; the Shore Hotel in Santa Monica, $315,000; the All-Star Hotel in San Francisco, $250,000, and the Golden West Hotel in Los Angeles, $149,000.