A California Environmental Quality Act compliance review will be conducted in hopes of bringing a Grand Hyatt hotel to the Bayonet and Black Horse Golf Course on the Monterey Peninsula. Approvals in 2005 authorized the development of a 330-room hotel, 170 timeshare units or 225 units if each lock-off portion is rented separately, and 125 single-family residential lots.

KDG Capital, the owner and developer of the hotel component of the Seaside Resort Project at Bayonet and Black Horse Golf Course in Seaside, Calif., is bringing a Grand Hyatt hotel to the Monterey Peninsula, submitting a design review application for its construction, and prompting the city to hire EMC Planning Group to perform a California Environmental Quality Act compliance review, the Monterey Herald reported.

Hyatt says its Grand Hyatt hotels are luxury destination accommodations said to celebrate the uniqueness of their locations, and connect guests to iconic experiences, landmarks and cultural touchstones of the destinations, the Herald reported. A high-end hotel property has been a long-sought anchor for the fledgling resort development, which has been on the books for about two decades, that also includes timeshares and residential homes among the two 18-hole golf courses.

The Grand Hyatt in Seaside will be one of four in California, joining two in San Francisco and one in San Diego, the Herald reported. There are 59 Grand Hyatt hotels worldwide offering an upscale stay in big cities, beach destinations and a few airport locations.

The original developer, Seaside Resort Development of Tucson, sold the hotel parcel for $25.2 million in late 2021 to KDG Capital, a Florida-based real estate private equity firm, the Herald reported. Kiran C. Patel, Dheer Lashkari, and Greg Ogle are the principals in KDG Capital.

C+RB reported in 2017 that Monterey Bay Resorts, LLC, a Nevada limited liability company, was “aspiring” to be the new developer of the project, replacing Seaside Resort Development, LLC, of Arizona.

But before construction begins on the luxury hotel, the city will engage EMC Planning Group to provide a California Environmental Quality Act compliance review for the Grand Hyatt hotel design as submitted by KDG for an amount not to exceed $100,000, the Herald reported.

At the June 2 Seaside City Council meeting, a resolution was adopted authorizing the city manager to execute a professional services agreement with EMC Planning Group for the preparation of an initial study for revisions to the hotel component of the Seaside Resort Project, the Herald reported.

The Seaside Resort Project was approved by the Seaside City Council and Redevelopment Agency in July 2005, the Herald reported. Approvals included a vesting tentative map, design review of the entire project, site plan review for the hotel, a use permit for the sale of alcoholic beverages, a use permit for timeshares, a use permit for residential uses, and a conveyance agreement and disposition and development agreement between the city and the developer. An environmental impact report was certified for the proposed development, according to city documents.

The approvals authorized the development of a 330-room hotel, 170 timeshare units or 225 units if each lock-off portion is rented separately, and 125 single-family residential lots, the Herald reported. A “lock-off” refers to a timeshare unit that can be divided into two distinct dwelling units.

The disposition and development agreement was revised in June 2019 and became the second amended disposition and development agreement, the Herald reported. The Seaside Resort Project property site was sold to Seaside Resort Development in late 2019 in accordance with that agreement.

The development of the 125 single-family homes is currently underway by Shea Homes, the Herald reported. In 2009, the first 10 lots were released for sale at The Enclave at Cypress Grove with four home sites sold and built upon. But the Great Recession prompted the rest to be mothballed. In May 2021, the residential component started moving forward again.

In accordance with an addendum to the second amended disposition and development agreement, the original developer, Seaside Resort Development, conveyed its ownership of the hotel parcel to KDG Capital, the Herald reported. The new owner submitted a design review application for the construction of a Grand Hyatt Hotel that includes the same number of guest rooms as originally approved but will include an additional 102,000 square feet of floor area.

City staff determined that the increase in size of the hotel will require the preparation of an initial study per California Environmental Quality Act guidelines to provide a comparison of the environmental factors of the new design with those that were assessed in the final environmental impact report to verify that the revised design and site layout will remain consistent with the findings, conditions and mitigation measures adopted for the Seaside Resort Project, the Herald reported.

City staff recommended EMC Planning Group, a full-service land use and environmental planning firm located in Monterey, because they have prepared all the previous environmental documents, the Herald reported. Staff said EMC has demonstrated experience and success in managing similar projects in nature and scope such as the California Central Coast Veterans Cemetery and other projects on land that was once the Fort Ord Army base. The environmental planning firm is expected to complete its environmental review services within a five-month timeframe, completing an analysis of the project in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act checklist.

The costs of the review will be fully reimbursed by the developer, the Herald reported. The applicant is responsible for providing the city a $100,000 deposit to cover the entire cost of the contract and is obligated to reimburse the city for its actual out-of-pocket costs and expenses in fulfilling its obligations in reviewing and processing the design review application.