By Cheryl Miller
Record Staff Writer
Published Thursday, March 20, 2003

Beneath a decade of dust, peeling paint and a sea of hard hats, a group of visitors toured the Hotel Stockton on Wednesday and were asked to envision what the historic hostel might become by next year.

Architect Mike Malinowski stood atop the hotel's roof, littered now with scrap metal and an aging, waterless fountain but still offering an unobstructed view of the Deep Water Channel.

"I can envision lights, the tropical sorts of foliage that were here in the '20s," he said, noting the seemingly perfect setting for an outdoor restaurant or reception area. "But we've got to get the right tenants in here."

Such visions require a good bit of imagination these days as the Hotel Stockton undergoes a $23 million renovation project. But as they offered city officials, business leaders and reporters a glimpse of the restoration work Wednesday, Malinowski and developer Cyrus Youssefi insisted the venerable building will regain the luster that once made it a downtown gem.

"When we finish fixing the outside of the building, it's going to look just as good as it did in 1910," Malinowski said.

The architect, well-known for his work on Sacramento's historic Victorians, called the hotel's Mission Revival exterior "a showcase."

Stockton and Youssefi's development group put together
$15 million in affordable-housing tax credits and about $4 million in city funding to transform the vacant hotel into 156 studios and one-bedroom apartments as well as 20,000 square feet of street-level retail and commercial space.

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Youssefi said the hotel will be managed as a low-income senior housing complex, although tax-credit restrictions forbid managers from barring potential tenants solely based on their age.

With studio rent expected to run just $235 a month, "seniors on fixed incomes will fit just like a glove," he said.

Youssefi refurbished the Quan Ying Senior Apartments and turned the downtown Hotel Lodi into senior housing. He also restored three Victorians in Stockton's Gleason Park neighborhood that will soon open to low-income tenants.

Youssefi said future Hotel Stockton residents will be carefully screened, while on-site managers will oversee the apartments.

The Hotel Stockton opened its doors in 1910. Local merchants raised close to $500,000 to construct the building, hoping the hotel would draw tourists to their downtown establishments.

Well-heeled visitors arriving by train or steamer could rent one of 200 private-bath guest rooms for $2 a night and spend warm summer evenings in the rooftop garden.

The six-story building was the first reinforced concrete structure in the Central Valley and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

As more Americans purchased cars in the 20th century, tourists were drawn increasingly to freeway-accessible motels and lodges. Occupancy at the Hotel Stockton fizzled. Ownership changed hands several times, and the county housed its welfare offices there until 1992. Various renovation plans failed over the years, and the building stood empty and boarded-up for more than a decade.

Now, a team of workers is painstakingly restoring the tiny tiles that make up many of the hotel floors, fixing the building's 745 windows and upgrading its electrical system, elevators and structural safety to modern standards.

Youssefi and Malinowski say an ambitious schedule will allow them to reopen the Hotel Stockton in December 2004.

"Nobody could touch this for how many years?" Youssefi said as he stood in what will be the hotel's high-ceiling public lobby. "You get the team together, you get the city involved, and you get things done. There's a lot of satisfaction in this."

* To reach reporter Cheryl Miller, phone 546-8252 or e-mail cmiller@recordnet.com