Vin Smith said that under negotiated development agreements, hotels Andaz and Archer are allowed parking spaces in the city’s multi-storey car parks, which the city will only enter into if there is greater public benefit.
Smith said the Andaz Hotel was the first downtown hotel to be built, so it was a major business risk and a major improvement for First Street. The Archer Hotel also made a significant improvement to First Street through a development agreement, he said.
Smith also said that the downtown Napa retail environment has recovered and the demand for parking garages is increasing over the years, in part as a result of the two hotel developments.
“We’re very moody, if you will, or picky or precise about the decisions we make as a community to give up public assets to help a private company,” said Smith. “That is one or the other reason why the employees did not support this request: Nothing else comes of it than, we want to remove this building, we want to build a new building and we want to use your parking garage to solve our parking space requirements.”
Kelley said the project would only work with a development agreement with parking spaces that would need to be approved by the city council. He suggested that the project could continue so the developer could try to work out and then negotiate a development agreement.
