By Jorge Casuso

July 18, 2025 -- Nearly five years after the City Council rejected The Plaza mixed-use hotel project in the heart of Downtown, the City is actively seeking proposals to develop the 2.57-acre site.

The City's "Notice of Availability" issued on June 30 seeks a developer that can "provide a minimum of 362 affordable residences" and explore "other potential commercial uses."

The notice prioritizes affordable housing in an effort to help the City meet its State-mandated goal to plan for nearly 9,000 new housing units, two-thirds of them affordable, by 2029.

"If 362 affordable residences is not financially feasible, (the) proposal must provide an explanation for why it is not feasible and provide an alternative scenario(s) to maximize the number of affordable apartments," the notice states.

"The City may consider scenarios that include market-rate, middle income, moderate income or other types of housing with the priority for affordable residences."

The notice comes a dozen years after The Plaza's developer, Clarett West, entered into negotiations for the City owned site, which houses two banks and a winter skating rink.

The proposal was radically changed several times during its seven-year journey through the planning pipeline before a newly seated slow-growth Council voted to cease negotiations in December 2020 ("New Council Kills Plaza Project," December 15, 2020).

The vote to reject the project was cast after the Council discussed the item in closed session and flipped a 6-1 decision backed by the three incumbents ousted the previous month ("Santa Monica Council Votes to Continue Negotiations on 'The Plaza' Project Downtown," July 29, 2020).

The final proposal called for a 357,000-square-foot project that included a luxury hotel, creative workspaces and 48 units of affordable housing.

The proposed development was expected to pump several million dollars a year into the City's coffers and included a one-time payment of $24 million to produce affordable housing.

Dave Rand, the land use attorney who represented the developer, believes the cash-strapped City missed a golden opportunity and noted that affordable housing "is the most expensive form of housing" to build.

Since The Plaza proposal was rejected, "literally nothing has happened on the site," Rand said. "What the City needs more than anything is revenues. This (site) is a gold mine."

Former mayor Sue Himmelrich, who cast one of the four votes to end negotiations with Clarett West, said she is "glad it's affordable housing" that will be built.

"There'll be retail on the ground floor, so they'll be fine," she said referring to the City.

No matter what is built on the 9 parcels it took the City more than a decade to cobble together, it could take nearly as long to complete the project, based on a description of the process outlined in the City's notice.

"After a development team is selected and an Exclusive Negotiating Agreement (ENA) is executed between the developer and the City," the notice states, "community engagement pursuant to the City’s Zoning Code and state law will be required.

"Supplemental community engagement, as outlined in the guiding principles, will also be required," the notice reads. "If negotiations are successful, it is anticipated that City Council will review and approve the final development proposal (and) negotiated deal terms."

The ground lease would have a term of 55 years and up to two 22-year options for a total lease term of up to 99 years.

When the Council killed The Plaza project five years ago, Councilmember Gleam Davis warned that the City was postponing developing the prime Downtown site "for an indefinite period into an indefinite future."