By Nick Diamantides, Staff Writer
If Signal Hill officials have their way, a new hotel will be built close to the Target store that recently reopened.
“We had planned for a public storage facility next door to Target, but that project did not go forward,” said Gary Jones, director of community development. “Since then, we have been encouraging Signal Hill Petroleum to develop a hotel there.”
Jones explained that the site encompasses about five acres and is owned by the Field’s Trust with Signal Hill Petroleum acting as the developer.
“Having a new hotel on the west side of town has been part of the city’s strategic plan for several years,” Jones added. “The city council wants a hotel in order to help diversify the city’s tax base.” He noted that hotels bring cities transit occupancy tax (also known as bed tax) revenues. “We don’t want to be overly dependent on sales tax revenues,” Jones said.
Meanwhile, retail sales in Signal Hill continue to expand, mainly due to the addition of new stores in town in the last year and the reopening of the Target store on Atlantic Avenue. “We are seeing a steady increase in the city’s sales tax revenues,” Jones said.
He noted that another retailer–the Age of Aquariums–will open for business in about a month at 2642 Cherry Ave. “Formerly it was a transmission shop that many people considered an eyesore,” he said. “It is now being completely remodeled inside and renovated outside. It’s going to be an attractive building.”
In addition, according to Jones, next year a new Starbucks and Jack In The Box will possibly be constructed at the Signal Hill Gateway Shopping Center on Spring Street. (That’s the location of the new Circuit City, which opened about six months ago.)
“Staff is currently reviewing plans for those facilities and will probably bring them to the planning commission within the next two months,” he said. “Construction could start in about six months.”
Jones added that while retail businesses are prospering in the city, one large retail building has remained vacant for about a year. “We have not heard of any new plans for the old Office Max building,” he said. “We’ve tried to attract specialty grocery stores to the site without any luck.”
He noted that the owners of the approximately 35,000-square-foot facility have also been marketing it, but so far no one has expressed interest in occupying the site.
