Hotel Project May Anchor Ventura Harbor Revival

Aiming to revive the struggling Channel Islands Harbor, Ventura County officials hope by year’s end to finalize an agreement to revamp a major hotel and restaurant that sit on prime waterfront property.

The deal calls for an overhaul of the aging and underused Casa Sirena hotel on Peninsula Road, turning it into an upscale 250-room resort to be run by a national chain, said Supervisor John Flynn, a key figure in the negotiations.

The Lobster Trap restaurant, next to the hotel, and a struggling strip mall at Victoria Avenue and Channels Islands Boulevard also could undergo a renovation as part of the plan. That mall, called Fisherman’s Wharf, has been a financial disappointment to many retailers and city officials.

The county, Flynn said, also is gathering grant money to build a marine research center on the west side of the harbor, north of the Whale’s Tail restaurant, and wants to expand or rebuild its Maritime Museum at Fisherman’s Wharf.

Flynn predicted that the entire effort would lead to “a thriving harbor” that attracts local residents and tourists, as well as students and professors from the future Cal State Channel Islands campus university near Camarillo.

Steve Kinney, president of the Greater Oxnard Economic Development Corp., said the county plans could help Oxnard. Although the harbor is in Oxnard, the county controls the land flanking it and grants leases to its tenants.

“Having a successful harbor there is a critical piece in the entire city’s tourism program,” Kinney said. “That would help all the other attractions in the city, everything from shopping to museums to festivals that take place in the city.”

What owner Channel Islands Properties wants in exchange for updating its hotel is an extension on the firm’s long-term lease on apartment buildings along the harbor. That would allow the company to retain control of the apartments for at least the next 50 years. The upscale rental units, with views of the water, are in high demand in a tight rental market.

Channel Islands’ chief operating officer, Steven C. Walton, was reluctant to discuss details of the deal. But Walton said he is very pleased with the discussions and is eager to begin sprucing up the company’s harbor properties.

Channel Islands Properties is a subsidiary of the New York-based firm that bought out Oxnard property magnate Martin V. “Bud” Smith’s holdings five years ago.

Flynn said that although the talks are promising, an agreement is not yet formalized. Although many specifics were unclear, Flynn said the revitalization effort would cost several million dollars and could be complete by 2003.