Historic YWCA building to become boutique hotel
“The run-down historic YWCA building, which the city bought for $8.3 million through eminent domain in 2012, is set to be converted into a 150-room boutique hotel by San Francisco-based Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants.
In what city officials described as a “potential partnership,” the city has agreed to a 120-day exclusive negotiation agreement with Kimpton on plans to restore and reuse the Julia Morgan building in Pasadena’s civic center.
Pasadena’s block-long former YWCA building at 78 N. Marengo Ave., designed by pioneering California architect and Hearst Castle builder Julia Morgan, has been the focus of a 17-year saga since the YWCA sold it for about $1 million in 1996.
Various development proposals along the way, including an earlier plan for a boutique hotel, never materialized.
The city took possession by eminent domain in December 2010, citing the owner’s “demolition by neglect” of a building listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
At the time, $6.4 million in city redevelopment funds were transferred into a court account to compensate the owner, businesswoman Angela Chen-Sabella of Trove Investments Corp. Chen-Sabella unsuccessfully challenged the city’s eminent domain action in court in 2011. The city later set aside another $2 million from previous development funds to meet the fair market value decided by a judge.”
Williams, Janette. Pasadena Star News 11 June 2013.