Arcadia Seabiscuit Pacifica Project-Phase 2 calls for revised mixed-use project. Arcadia City Council decided on July 3 they want to see more artists' renderings of what Phase 2 will ultimately look like, before going ahead with the $300 million hotel project on the former Santa Anita inn site. The applicant Chateau Group is also requesting to merge the two abutting properties a 100 and 180 West Huntington Drive into the Specific Plan area and change the General Plan Land use Designation from "Commercial with Downtown Overlay" to "Downtown Mixed Use," to revise the General Plan Land Use Map to reflect the changes, rezone the properties from "General Commercial with Downtown Overlay" to "Seabiscuit Pacifica Specific Plan," and include a Height Overlay of H8 on 180 West Huntington Drive to allow a portion of the mixed-use building on that property. The Santa Anita Inn was a 2-story hotel comprised of 6 buildings, 110 rooms, 34,775 s.f., that was originally constructed in 1955 and remodeled in 1985.
Construction will begin in November on the $20 million hotel-office complex on the site of the Ramada Inn, according to John Kirkpatrick, the developer. He expects that the hotel and one office building will be completed before the 1984 Olympics. The new hotel will be first class with a well-known name.
Ramada Inn at 130 W. Huntington Drive. Photo taken from across Huntington Drive. Includes the sign and parking lot. Former location of Lyon's Pony Express Museum.
With Councilmen Dick Haltom and Dave Hannah dissenting, the Arcadia City Council approved a resolution of inducement for tax-exempt financing for the proposed Ramada Inn project.