A lot of effort is being put into a local campaign to show how decrepit the Palace Hotel, a downtown Ukiah landmark, has become.
The historic structure's current condition is thanks to two owners - one from Marin County and the other a Ukiah motel operator - who over the past three decades have done little to protect the town's most significant historic building. The City of Ukiah has done a lot of handwringing and taken occasional public action over the decades, but it has aided the Palace’s sharp decline by a largely hands-off policy.
Demolition proponents now want to use $6.6 million in taxpayer dollars to tear down the Palace under the guise of a contaminated soil clean-up effort.
The advocates are the Guidiville Rancheria and a mystery group of local investors, whose public spokesman is Left Coast restauranteur Matt Talbert. After the taxpayer-funded demolition and cleanup, then the Guidiville/investment group wants to do their privately owned project, purportedly a faux Palace in its place.
Despite the clamor, and the ghastly photos of how the interior of the Palace looks now, noted historic preservation architect Carolyn Kiernat of Page & Turnbull in San Francisco believes the Palace can be shored up, gutted, and recycled into a downtown centerpiece.
The firm in 2022 assisted Ukiah financier Minal Shankar in preparing possibilities, but the deal was scuttled by current owner Jitu Ishwar, who apparently didn't get the dollars he demanded. Ishwar is the owner of another downtown eyesore within a block of City Hall – the Economy Inn.
Kiernat and Page & Turnbull have done fine restoration projects all over California, including the Ferry Building in SF. Kiernat provides this example of the recent transformation of the old Hotel Tioga in Merced, a building not unlike the Palace.
Kiernat said the Palace can be recycled into a new centerpiece for Ukiah.
“It’s possible. It’s been done elsewhere, and I know it can be done in Ukiah,” said Kiernat.
Regional contractor Tom Carter agrees. Carter did the restoration of the acclaimed Tallman Hotel and Blue Wing Saloon in Upper Lake, among other projects in the region including Sonoma County.
Carter two years ago combed the Palace and attempted to buy the building from the current owner Jitu Ishwar.
“The Palace Hotel can be restored” he wrote in published response Sunday to a series of photographs depicting the sad state today of the Palace’s interior.
“I had permission two years ago to examine the hotel for several weeks. I’ve done similar restoration work. I have the plans that were commissioned to begin the restoration. No one has said it would be easy but, it’s not as difficult as most people think,” wrote Carter.
Carter said there are many questions to be resolved.
“That’s why it needs great cooperation between the owners, the City and most of all the Community,” he said.
Carter offered this advice:
“To the owners, stop looking at it and wondering how much money can be made and start looking at what you can put back into your community. After all, it’s the community that keeps your other businesses alive. To the community, project some optimism, get on board because time is running out.”
https://www.constructionspecifier.com/page-turnbull-reimagines-historic-calif-hotel-as-cultural-hub/
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