Opening of Marriott in Old Pasadena the First Drop in Coming Wave of New Pasadena Hotels

Last week’s opening of the Marriott Residence Inn in Old Pasadena and this weekend’s protest against a planned Kimpton hotel development across from City Hall manifest the coming wave of new hotels planned for Pasadena.

At the moment there are five hotel projects in various stages of development — The Dusit2 Constance Hotel Phase II on Colorado Boulevard at Mentor Avenue, two proposed hotels at a former car dealership on Colorado Boulevard and Hill Avenue, the Kimpton/YWCA project in the Civic Center, and a new Hyatt Place at the Paseo shopping center.

City Manager Steve Mermell gives his take on the planned Pasadena hotel developments: “These projects benefit the City in several ways. We have a first class convention center that would benefit from having more hotel rooms available to book conventions and gatherings. The hotels at the Paseo and in the Civic Center would help bring new activity and vitality to the area, and the Kimpton project would restore the long-ignored historic Julia Morgan YWCA building.”

The new projects represent the largest wave of new hotel construction in Pasadena in decades.

Faced with a projected deficit in the 2018 fiscal year, the City is counting on the new hotel projects to help fill its coffers. At the same time, unionized hotel workers are organizing to expand memberships, and fill those new hotel jobs.

Taken together, the new hotel projects could present a confluence of potentially stormy issues for City leaders. While the city and others place their hopes on jobs, many of the new hotel projects have already rejected any union organizing of employees.

“That’s just not going to work for us,” said Pasadena attorney Richard McDonald, who is representing developers in the upcoming projects.

Meanwhile, since last summer, members of UNITE HERE Local 11 have been asking the City Council to build a labor union “peace agreement” into negotiation with the Kimpton/YMCA developers.

The Pasadena Hilton is currently the only unionized hotel in the City that UNITE HERE Local 11 represents.

Such an agreement would ensure that workers and management work together rather than combatively to minimize operational disruption, and have been approved in other cities for municipal-owned land in Los Angeles, Long Beach and Santa Monica.

According to McDonald, studies over the years have shown that union contracts push up the costs of developing a hotel and operating it, upwards of 30 to 40% or more.

If the City Council were to vote in favor of requiring worker unionization at the Kimpton Hotel project because it is to be located on city land, as UNITE HERE has demanded, the project would not move forward, McDonald said last year.

Meanwhile, the Civic Center Coalition, a local advocacy group, which is opposed to the Kimpton Hotel project for a number of reasons, has released a documentary style video in opposition to the development as well as a recently released brochure outlining several reasons for their opposition to the project, and is also gearing up for a battle.

They are opposed to the new hotel project and allege that the City made a “secret” deal to “give away green space.” Ironically, Pasadena Heritage has come out in favor of the new project, saying it “saves” the historic structure from future neglect.”

Ultimately, though, it is labor and jobs that will tell the tale of the city’s new hotel projects.

Jesus Hermosillo, research analyst for UNITE HERE Local 11, posits that unions are the key to projects of this type, saying, “This is basically about benefits to the community and to workers. These benefits obviously include decent wages and job protections, as well as job training.”

Says Hermosillo, “A lot of hotels, who have not committed to certain job protections, end up paying minimum wage, which is not a living wage.”

Others are more hopeful. Gary Moody, president of the Pasadena Chapter of the NAACP, is hoping for a slew of new jobs for local African-American residents, as a possible answer to gang and gun violence.

“These projects generate Transient Occupancy Tax revenue that supports both City services and the Pasadena Center,” Mermell added. “They also provide jobs for many local residents.”

In fact, Mermell reported, The Residence Inn recently held a job fair and hired a number of local residents.

The YWCA/Kimpton project is “next up.” It is scheduled to go before the Pasadena City Council for a public hearing at 7 p.m. on August 15.