February 8, 1998

Del Puerto Hotel to be returned to Vee Hooper

by Claude Delphia

At 11:05 a.m. Friday, the Patterson Township Historical Society board voted to deed the Del Puerto hotel back to Vee Hooper, the mortgage holder. The meeting had been previously set for February 6th with the understanding that the city council’s position on the Hotel would be known following the report to the city council on architect Ernie Yoshino’s estimates. The council made no commitment regarding the Hotel purchase at their Tuesday February 3rd meeting, but the P.T.H.S. board felt they had to make their decision without further delay.

The original purchase agreement between Vee Hooper and the Patterson Township Historical Society contained a balloon payment clause that was up on February 1st. That payment was $150,000 dollars plus interest. The board felt morally and legally obligated to do a Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure to Vee Hooper. The vote was unanimous and legal proceedings will get underway Monday.

While it was clear earlier that the historical society was not going to meet that payment, there was serious consideration that the historical society might come to an agreement with the City of Patterson so that they could purchase the property for a new City Hall.

Discussions between the Restoration Committee/Historical Society and the City of Patterson began in December of ’96, were expanded over last summer and culminated in a joint meeting between the city council and historical society board on November 18th. At that time, the city council hired Turlock architect Ernie Yoshino to come up with estimates on three scenarios of construction on the Hotel site. His report was received in the last week of January.

During January, numerous meetings were held between the historical society board and city staff members to discuss possible ways to sell the property to the city. The city staff was asking the historical society to arrange for an extension on the mortgage of at least two months and preferably six. The architect’s report came in with estimated costs ranging from $1.3 million for a replica of the Hotel to house city hall, to over $1.8 million for a restoration-rehab to provide the city with office and meeting space.

At the city council meeting Tuesday night, February 3rd, city manager George Lambert reported on the architect’s estimates and recommended option 1 — a replica of the Hotel as it looked in 1910 with "no cracks or sags." It would also include new door and window placements, a handicap ramp extending off one side of the front porch, which would eliminate the tall trees on each corner of the front porch. The council seemed to favor option No. 1, which was to build a replica of the hotel to house to the City Hall at a cost of over $1.3 million dollars. While there was considerable discussion amongst the council members as to how this might be accomplished, there was no consensus to spend additional money to determine the feasibility of building a City Hall on hotel the site. Nor were all members in favor of spending money for a new city hall. Councilmen Eloy Vento opposed the city hall replica hotel concept. Instead he believes the city should do a true restoration and make the Hotel a cultural center for the residents rather than offices for city staff. He said several other options have been presented for building city hall downtown, but were rejected.

At the end of the meeting, there was a consensus by the council to hold additional discussions with the historical society. However no meeting dates were set, nor was any direction given to staff as how to proceed towards acquiring the hotel property other than to allow staff to look into bond issue financing as long as it didn’t cost the city any money.

This set the stage for the Patterson Township Historical Society board meeting to consider the council’s position and decide whether they could make arrangements to continue ownership of the Hotel until the city could work out financing.

A lengthy discussion preceding the vote included comments from each of the five board members present, members of the original Restoration Committee and others in attendance. The more than two-hour discussion included mortgage holder Vee Hooper and former Restoration Project Director Claude Delphia.

The group reached the conclusion that it would take many months (others suggest years) for the city to come to a decision to build a new City Hall at that location. As remarked by Delphia, one of original proponents of saving the hotel, " It's time for the historical society to honor its legal and moral agreement with Vee Hooper and deed the property back to her. We’ve saved the building, so far, and it’s time to let the process move on to another level."

At one point last month, Vee Hooper had offered to extend the historical society's ownership, so that an agreement of sale with the city, or another buyer, could be worked out. However it could only be for a very limited time. In that context, the board and others present noted that no further meetings had actually been set with the city and there was no clear indication from either the city, or any other potential buyer, to purchase the property within Hooper’s time limits.

Restoration of the Hotel is still possible. Delphia reported that there was interest by others in purchasing and restoring the hotel. While it would be ideal for the historical society to be the one to sell the hotel to a restorer, time has run out for that process to take place within a reasonable time. Delphia believes that the best chance of restoring hotel now lies under Vee Hooper’s ownership with other buyers interested in restoration having expressed an interest in purchasing the Hotel. The restoration contractor from the Pasadena area is still expressing interest and is in the middle of their decision process. Other restoration development firms will be contacted. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, San Francisco office, has offered to help locate potential buyers.

Vee Hooper said: "While this isn’t what I wanted, and have dreaded, it’s time to move on. While I can’t guarantee results, other restoration avenues have opened up and I will listen to anyone and consider all options for the purchase of the property and building. However there will not be a long time frame for something to happen. The story hasn’t ended yet, but something has to happen soon if the building is to be saved." Hooper commented she would be open to any option but added, "There will be a time frame, but not a long one." The PTHS board and Restoration Committee members at the meeting are supportive of the continuing effort in this direction and, while options continue to be explored, the Hotel will be maintained in its present condition.

Historical Society President Mike Wright and former Hotel Restoration Committee Director Claude Delphia, on behalf of the groups they represent, want to thank all those donors and workers who made this effort possible. The result is that the hotel is still standing and has now generated restoration and development interest from far outside the area, something that could not have happened without the Restoration Committee’s efforts supported by the Patterson Town Ship Historical Society.

Over $103,000 was raised in the process to save the Hotel from demolition by purchasing it. Ten’s of thousands were spent to stabilize walls and to clean up the building — a process not completed for lack of donations. In addition, a complete set of architectural drawings has been created and a valuable engineering report was done to confirm the restorability of the Hotel. Money was also spent to protect the building from the excessive rains now hitting Patterson for the second year in a row. Attempts to raise money for a badly needed roof were ended by the historical society board when they came to believe that the city council didn’t want to restore the hotel. However money continues to come in from various small ongoing fund raising projects.

Remaining restoration funds and anything added by future sale of memorabilia will be dedicated to establishing a memorial for those who contributed in memory of family and friends.