Oakland Planning Commission Affirms New Downtown Hotel Decision

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OAKLAND, CA - The Oakland Planning Commission voted 4-1 Wednesday to uphold the decision by Planning Director Rachel Flynn to approve the construction of a new Hampton Inn in downtown Oakland following an appeal by opponents of the project.

Dan Cohen, a spokesman for the Patel family and Ridgemont Hospitality, which owns the site at 11th and Franklin streets, said today that the 110-room hotel is expected to provide nearly $1 million in general tax revenue to the city annually and create 25 permanent jobs and hundreds of construction jobs.

Dhruv Patel, the chief operating officer for Ridgemont Hospitality, said in a statement, "We hope to break ground and complete the project as quickly as we can. The business and leisure travel market in Oakland is booming and we want to help fill the needs for rooms and jobs in this community."

The hotel is expected to be completed in two years. Unite Here Local 2850, which represents hotel and restaurant workers, appealed Flynn's previous decision to approve the hotel project, pointing out that city investigators recently concluded that the Patels violated Oakland's minimum wage law at one of their existing hotels, the Holiday Inn Express near Oakland International Airport.

Ty Hudson, a research analyst for the union, said in a recent letter to the Planning Department that if the Patels pay Hampton Hotel employees less than the minimum wage, those workers might need public assistance and other hotels in the downtown area might also decide to pay lower wages.

But Cohen said the Patel family "has issued a total and complete denial" of the city's allegation that it pays employees at the Holiday Inn Express less than the minimum wage and is frustrated that the city doesn't have a process for appealing its finding.

Dhruv Patel said in a statement, "We are disappointed that the union has chosen to turn a land use issue into an opportunity to slander our family business. We own two small hotels in the East Bay and have a great track record of retention and growth from within." Patel said, "Oakland has the third highest minimum wage in the state. We proudly pay our employees above the current Oakland and Alameda County minimum wage."

In a memo asking the Planning Commission to uphold Flynn's decision and deny the union's appeal, city planner Peterson Vollman wrote that the development is located near existing transit lines and will create new jobs that "may be available to Oakland residents and help to reduce the level of unemployment in the city."

The project also was opposed by the group Asian Pacific Islander Youth Promoting Action and Leadership (AYPAL), which said the site should be used for more community services and programs for the adjacent Chinatown area, such as after-school programs for at-risk youth.

Last month, about 25 students from different Oakland high schools came to the site where the hotel is slated to be built and performed a cultural arts dance show to protest the project. "The Asian Pacific Islander community is often overlooked and this space could be used towards resources that underrepresented communities need, rather than building a hotel that has a track record of bad working conditions," AYPAL director Joshua Fisher Lee said.

--Bay City News