Breakers Hotel Will Be Residence for Elderly
The elegant Breakers Hotel, a downtown Long Beach landmark since 1925, is being bought for conversion to a senior citizens residence, developers said Tuesday.
The 242-room hotel, abruptly closed in January because of financial difficulties, will be renovated to comply with Long Beach’s earthquake standards ordinance and to install amenities for senior citizens, said Richard Bookman, president of Senior Living Development Inc.
“Right now, it is being very well maintained but clearly it needs some sprucing up,” Bookman said. “It’s a landmark . . . and it’s very meaningful to the community. We feel it will be an asset to the community because of the need for moderately priced (senior citizen) housing.”
Gourmet Restaurant
The 15-story pink concrete building will reopen next May, he said. Besides housing senior citizens, the Breakers will have a new Sky Room gourmet restaurant open to the public on its top floor and ground-floor shops facing Ocean Boulevard.
First Interstate Bank of California is selling the hotel to Bookman’s firm and a sister corporation, Senior Living Communities headed by Frank J. Haffner. Both of the firms have moved to offices at the Breakers and are subsidiaries of Shamrock of California Inc., based in Burbank. The sales price and terms were not disclosed.
The reopening of the Breakers will be a victory for historical preservationists who consider the building one of the most architecturally prized downtown structures.
The plan to house senior citizens in one of the emerging downtown’s most prominent buildings would mark a turnabout from the city’s efforts to shed its retirement town image in favor of a more youthful appeal.
But Joseph F. Prevratil, former president of Wrather Port Properties Ltd., which managed the hotel before it was closed, said if the building is transformed into a quality senior development, it would be consistent with efforts to revive downtown Long Beach.
Senior citizens inhabited the hotel until 1982 when the owners, Breakers Associates, poured $15 million into a three-year renovation project to bring the hotel back to first-class form.
Earthquake Repairs
Prevratil said the hotel was operating profitably before the January closure but was sinking under the combined weight of heavy debt and impending costs of earthquake repairs. About 150 employees were idled. A city official said plans filed about a month ago call for at least $2.3 million in earthquake renovations.
The Romanesque building survived the earthquake of 1933 when it was one of the city’s most popular and elegant hotels. It was the official Airwatch headquarters for Long Beach Harbor during World War II when anti-aircraft guns were mounted in the cupola.
