Pittsburg OKs lease for waterfront hotel, banquet room, restaurants

PITTSBURG — A boutique resort, banquet room and two eating places may sooner or later grace Pittsburg’s waterfront, serving to to revitalize an space that for a lot of many years has been largely dormant.

The Metropolis Council on Tuesday unanimously permitted a lease settlement with Peter Nguyen of World Sources Buying and selling LLC for 2 city-owned vacant waterfront parcels on a one-acre parcel that has been vacant for years. One a part of the land is a tidelands property the state granted to town, with restrictions on its use, making the settlement the primary of its type within the metropolis.

Metropolis leaders and others hope the Marina Boulevard venture, which nonetheless must be permitted, will assist spur different improvement within the marina space.

“We’re very enthusiastic about this venture,” stated Pittsburg Chamber CEO Wolfgang Croskey, talking for his pal and fellow businessman, Nguyen.

“Should you return 150 years in Pittsburg’s historical past, you’ll recall that it was fishermen immigrants coming to America to start out a enterprise and to develop and in a sure manner … He (Nguyen) is principally your American dream. He got here right here to america with a fishing boat and he’s constructed his enterprise and grown and raised his household and now needs to proceed the funding right here in Pittsburg.”

Nguyen has operated a bait store there since 2018 and Fishermen’s Catch market and cafe since 2020 close to the location the place he plans to erect the resort. Final 12 months he entered into an unique negotiating settlement with town for growing the parcels.

Primarily based in Pittsburg, World Sources is a premier wholesaler of seafood, promoting to main chains comparable to Entire Meals. Earlier than that, Nguyen owned and operated a industrial fishing vessel from 1985 to 1995 and the Hong Kong Restaurant in Union Metropolis from 1995 to 2001.

Nguyen proposes to construct a three-story resort with themed upscale two- or three-bedroom suites on the higher ground, with a ten,000-square-foot banquet corridor on the second ground, and two eating places alongside the waterfront on the San Joaquin River’s New York Slough in a spot known as the “berm.”

However earlier than spending tens of millions on the venture in a property he doesn’t personal, Nguyen requested town to first safe a lease. As a tidelands property, town just isn’t allowed to promote it and should comply with strict rules in its leasing agreements, together with that it’s long-term.

“That is the primary tidelands lease and venture that’s taken place in Pittsburg and we wish to make certain it’s a house run,” Croskey stated.

Beneath the phrases of the the lease settlement, the venture would generate $34,000 yearly, with the lease changes made to retain truthful market worth. After 2027, town would additionally accumulate 3% of the enterprise gross receipts and 1.5% of the meals and beverage gross receipts for the rest of the 49-year time period.

Metropolis analyst Sara Bellafronte stated town may notice a minimal of $51,400 yearly as soon as it begins amassing a proportion of the enterprise receipts.

The town would additionally profit from resort revenues within the type of a transient occupancy tax, the employees report famous.

“We really feel that the combo (resort, restaurant and banquet room) goes to permit the venture to achieve success and to be one thing that individuals will come to Pittsburg for,” Croskey stated. “And now after they go to a present, there’s a spot to remain down the road, after they go to a fishing event, there’s a spot to remain. So we’re offering a really distinctive alternative that may solely be present in Pittsburg.”

Bellafronte added that metropolis just isn’t locking itself right into a venture with this lease, “so no celebration is caught in a lease if there isn’t a venture.”

The analyst added that the proposed use of the property aligns with metropolis’s normal plan targets of creativing a pedestrian-friendly connection between the marina and the downtown space to the south and will assist lower blight within the space.

With little dialogue, Councilman Jelani Killings motioned for approval.

“I do know we’re seeing a variety of life come right down to our downtown hall and our marina and the way we will re-envision and actually capitalize on this asset, this jewel that we now have in the neighborhood,” he stated.