In a stunning turn of events, city-supported plans of an investor to transform the historic Palace Hotel into a commercial anchor for downtown Ukiah have collapsed.
Jitu Ishwar, the current owner of the derelict hotel property, this past week refused to accept final purchase terms from investor Minal Shankar.
Instead, Ishwar made a side deal with a new group of investors who are reportedly led by a downtown restaurateur. Shankar, city officials, and business and community leaders expressed dismay at the turn of events. It dashed hopes that finally the “moment” for restoration of the Palace as the town’s centerpiece had arrived.
Deputy City Manager Shannon Riley called the abrupt resale “very disappointing.”
Shankar, said Riley, was “extremely sophisticated, well-connected, and collaborative, and we were very hopeful that we were close to seeing the renovation of this beautiful building.”
Riley noted that Ishwar, who is a principal in a group that owns many of the motels in Mendocino and Lake counties, has held title to the Palace property for four years.
“It has been in the current owner’s hands since 2019 with zero progress,” she said.
Shankar said she was dismayed that Ishwar chose to walk away from their tentative deal and make a new one that negates months of tax financing studies, architectural and structural reviews, and design work by recognized San Francisco experts in historic renovation.
“I put a lot of time, effort, and money into this project over the past two years. I am extremely disappointed by how things went down,” said Shankar.
Nevertheless, said Shankar, she understood the “risks when I took this on.”
“I still believe that rehabilitating the Palace Hotel would be a great economic win for the city and the community. I wish them the best of luck in making that happen,” said Shankar.
Ishwar and his new buyers have yet to meet with city representatives to outline new Palace possibilities as they see them.
Ishwar this week declined to speak about his decision to tank the Shankar proposal and do a quick resale to a new group of local investors, who officially remain unidentified.
Attorney Atilla Panczel with Ukiah’s Duncan James law firm said he represents the new buyers, but he would not disclose their identities.
“The purchase agreement includes a confidentiality clause,” said Panczel.
Panczel described the buyers as a “serious group with a lot of capital, and ideas.”
“There will be a flurry of activity over the next few months to close the deal, and begin a city mandated permitting process,” said Panczel.
Through the actions of a court-appointed receiver, the Palace, has been in the hands of Ishwar since 2019. Ishwar and his wife Puru invested about $850,000 and ended up with a lien against the hotel property. He eventually secured title and put the hotel up for sale.
In April 2022 Shankar agreed to purchase the Palace but insisted on a long nine-month escrow so inspections, structural analyses, and permitting requirements could be agreed upon. The escrow was extended but, in the end, Shankar could not reach agreement with Ishwar about how he was to be paid off so she could receive clear title to the property.
What is clear now is that the collapse of the Shankar proposal, and the emergence of a new sales agreement means that at the very least any substantive work on the Palace will be delayed for months, if not years.
Tom Liden, a local photographer and a member of a “Friends of the Palace” Committee that the city formed under a previous ownership, said he remains hopeful. “I think something great can still happen with the Palace.”
Liden is friends with a local restaurateur who apparently is among the new buyers. “Things are very sensitive at this point, and he would prefer to talk only when escrow closes and plans are beginning to fall into place,” said Liden.
Stephen Johnson, Ishwar’s attorney, said he could not comment on his client’s decision to turn to a new deal with a different set of buyers.
About Shankar, Johnson said, “She didn’t close the deal. It would be unfair to suggest he did anything wrong.”
Riley, the deputy city manager, said during Ishwar’s ownership nothing has been done to stabilize the historic structure, or make any improvements.
For three decades or more, city officials have attempted to work with a variety of owners to save the Palace and keep it from being demolished for a downtown parking lot as some people advocate.
“At the end of the day, however, this is a private property transaction,” said Riley.
The Palace consists of four structures built between the years 1891 and 1929, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is the finest example of brick construction of the period remaining in Ukiah, according to the National Register. In total the Palace is a 60,000 square foot structure that historically had 90 rooms plus a bar, restaurant, ballroom, barbershop and a few retail stores. It has been stripped of many fine features, including a large mural that once dominated a legendary bar, the Black Bart Room.
How current Palace property owner Ishwar ended up with ownership of a celebrated landmark is another twist in a knotty history since the hotel was shuttered for good in the late 1980s.
Ishwar is the principal in a group that owns the largest number of motels in Mendocino and Lake counties.
Ishwar ended up being the Palace’s default owner after the city wrested control from a longtime Marin investor who made periodic efforts to clean up the hotel but was unable to begin any significant structural repairs, nor begin renovation.
Court documents show that Ishwar successfully bid for the Palace ownership in 2019 which included covering unpaid receivership fees and money advanced to a court-appointed receiver, a Santa Monica attorney. In 2022, Ishwar won clear title to the Palace property, paving the way for its eventual sale. Until then, title to the property had been tied up in receivership issues.
Shankar, a newcomer to the Ukiah Valley, is a successful online financier who was lauded in 2021 by the Canadian Lenders Association for being a woman “Leader in Lending” for her role in founding and becoming CEO of Easly, a Toronto-based firm that in a few short years secured $77 million in research and development funding for startups. She is a graduate of Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, and the prestigious Stern School of Business at New York University.
Shankar purchased a house overlooking Lake Mendocino in 2020 during the Covid era so she could be close her San Francisco based parents.
Shankar’s interest in the Palace began randomly. She noticed a fading for sale sign on its North State Street exterior one day and became curious about the possibilities of restoring the handsome old building.
After striking a purchase agreement with Ishwar, Shankar earnestly began to pull together a team with the goal of returning the Palace to the town’s centerpiece.
Shankar collaborated with designers Tommy Haddock of Alto Architecture and Carolyn Kieran, a 25-year principal with Page & Turnbull, a San Francisco firm with a long line of restoration credentials including the landmark Ferry Building in San Francisco. Together they produced sophisticated plans to bring the Palace back to life.
In essence, the plans called for a boutique hotel anchored by an upscale restaurant and bar, retail spaces carved out of the street level portions of the hotel, specialty shops surrounding an interior courtyard, and an event center/luxury rooms on the roof with spectacular views of the Ukiah Valley.
It took months of teams of renovation experts combing the Palace to determine structural needs, and what was needed to reshape the interior of the building.
Finally, with plans in hands and tax financing secure, Shankar made her move to wrap up an extended escrow with Ishwar.
Unexpectedly the process dragged on, however, and whispers started to circulate that Ishwar was resisting Shankar’s plans in hopes of striking a better and more lucrative deal with other buyers once the possibilities of Shankar’s year-long efforts became known.
Deputy City Manager Riley said the Palace revival is key to hopes for expanded tourism in the Ukiah Valley. Wineries, the nationally recognized Grace Hudson Museum, a developing restaurant row, recreational opportunities, and abundant natural resources draw some visitors.
“What we don’t have is the caliber of lodging that would attract the type of visitors that travel to Sonoma and Napa counties, or the Mendocino Coast,” said Riley.
Riley added that restoration of the Palace “isn’t about gentrification of our city. Ukiah is never going to be Healdsburg.”
“We are the county seat, and that comes with all kinds of essential services: courts, jail, social services, a community college, medical facilities, homeless shelters, and so on,” said Riley. “Those things will always keep us humble, and it’s what marks this such a genuine, diverse, and hospitable community.”
With state plans for construction of a new $140 million Mendocino County Courthouse away from the downtown core, Riley said it is even more important that the Palace become an anchor. The current courthouse generates a steady volume of foot traffic during the day, but at night the surrounding streets are largely devoid of people except for patrons of downtown restaurants.
Done right, the Palace has the potential to be a catalyst for a more vibrant business district, events, and expansion of efforts to restore other historic buildings.
“We can become a better version of ourselves,” said Riley.
And the Palace site remains the logical location for the new courthouse.
Enough already. How long are the administrators of Ukiah going to remained paralyzed by inaction? The only potential this eyesore has is collapsing and killing someone. Sure it was once a beautiful and vibrant part of Ukiah. Not anymore. Tear the damn thing down and, if you must, replace it with another eyesore, i.e., the new courthouse.