The long-vacant Sonoma Truck & Auto Center property at 870 Broadway was purchased this week by Lat33 Capital, the real estate investment company that owns MacArthur Place Inn and Spa.
The 1.86-acre property closed escrow Nov. 2 and the selling price was $3.75 million, according to Jonathan Brohard, chief operating officer and general counsel for the Arizona-based Lat33, a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Brohard said it’s too early to say what Lat33’s long-term plans are for the site, whose southern side is across the street from MacArthur Place. But, for the near-term, he said a cleanup is in order at the dilapidated property, which had served as a used-car dealership since the early 1970s, but has been out of operation for several years.
“People (in town) care about the site and we care — it’s right across the street from our property and it doesn’t look great,” Brohard told the Index-Tribune. “(A cleanup) is going to happen soon. By the end of the year we should have made some progress on it.”
City Manager Garrett Toy noted the cleanup process is already underway, with fresh paint covering graffiti and sprucing up old plywood.
“This is a positive change for the property and community as we now have a local presence to work with to maintain the property,” said Toy.
Brohard offered no specifics beyond the “immediate plan” to clean up the property, but said additional hospitality services, or an extension of MacArthur Place’s amenities, would be “obviously, one logical use for it.”
“It would be hard for me to say for sure what it will be... We’re in the early concept stages and city input will be a big part of it,” said Brohard.
As recently as August, MacArthur Place had been pursuing a plan to add 11 new guestrooms to its 64-room hotel and spa at 29 E. MacArthur St. But the expansion ran into roadblocks when the Sonoma Planning Commission refused to grant a waiver of the City’s recommended 50% residential component on the proposed building area.
Brohard said the purchase of 870 Broadway had been in the works for months and isn’t related to the proposed infill expansion at MacArthur Place.
The Truck & Auto property has been through many incarnations over the years, dating back to the 1860s when it was the site of a school called Cumberland College. In 1906, the building was renovated and became Sonoma Valley Union High School. After the high school moved south to its current location on Broadway, the site became a Ford Motor Company dealership.
In 1973, Sonoma resident Bob Bohna purchased the site for his Sonoma Truck & Auto used-car dealership. Bohna died in 2010.
Until recently, 870 Broadway had been the focus of a development proposal known as the Sonoma Gateway Project, a mixed-use housing project approved by the City Council in December of 2018, ostensibly paving the way for the construction of 3,500 square feet of commercial space and 33 residential units, eight of which would have been one-bedroom affordable housing apartments.
But the project faced staunch opposition from neighbors who appealed the approval and, when the appeal was rejected, later sued the city, demanding an environmental impact report.
While the Gateway Project sat in legal limbo, its developer – Broadway and MacArthur LLC – abandoned the project, and the property owner also dropped interest in pursuing the matter. The City Council formally withdrew its approval of the project last Feb. 1.
Since then the site has sat in limbo – with cracked asphalt, growing weeds, a deteriorating building and other debris and detritus littering the grounds.
Scot Hunter, spokesperson for the former Gateway Project property ownership, said he thinks the sale “should be good for the town.”
“(Being located so close) MacArthur Place are obvious buyers,” said Hunter. “And I hope they have more luck with the approval process than we did.”
Email Jason Walsh at Jason.walsh@sonomanews.com.
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