Checking in

Technically Redwood City does have two downtown hotels. One, the Pacific Euro Hotel, is a small “European style” budget hotel that requires many of its guests to use shared bathrooms down the hall. The other is the Sequoia Hotel. The Sequoia Hotel building is historic and has a beautiful façade, but serves more as a low-income housing option than as a conventional hotel. While that may change in the future, for now serious travelers don’t stay at the Sequoia Hotel.

Many of Redwood City’s hotels are fine for leisure travelers, but business travelers prefer to be near where they are working. Given the large number of companies who now have a presence in downtown Redwood City, there needs to be a downtown hotel at which people visiting those companies would consider staying. Currently, our business travelers need some form of transport to get between their hotel and their place of work, and once they’ve opted for that they no longer are limited to nearby hotels. Thus, many wind up looking beyond Redwood City’s borders for lodging.

A downtown hotel wouldn’t just benefit travelers who are working with Redwood City’s many downtown businesses. Redwood City has begun to attract some conventions, such as the two-day Startup Grind Global Conference that recently took over Redwood City’s Fox Theatre and Courthouse Square. A supply of nearby lodging is one factor that convention organizers consider when deciding where to locate, so if the city wants more such activities, a downtown hotel or two is a must.

Hotels can be a lucrative source of revenue for a city. Redwood City expects to take in $6.7 million in “transient occupancy taxes” this fiscal year, about equal to what it took in last year. New hotels could boost that number, however, and help make up for slowing growth in sales taxes. And because people who stay in hotels often eat and shop nearby, new downtown hotels would draw more people to our restaurants as well as provide additional incentive for new retailers to move in downtown.

Downtown Redwood City has only few locations where a hotel could realistically be located. Some people have suggested the Chase Bank property, on Broadway between Winslow and Hamilton streets. Perhaps more realistically, though, is the city-owned Winslow Street parking lot, just across the street from Redwood City’s Caltrain station. Some years ago, the city received proposals for a hotel to be built on that site. Not only would such a hotel have been close to mass transit, it would have been less than a block from Courthouse Square and Theatre Way. For all that, though, in 2015 the City Council decided not to move forward with a hotel on the Winslow Street lot, instead opting to let the community suggest the best uses for the parcel.

Although not quite downtown, Redwood City does have one new hotel in the proposal stage. The owners of the 18-room Garden Motel, on Broadway and Beech Street, have proposed replacing the motel with a five-story Holiday Inn Express and Suites. This hotel’s 112 rooms would sit over a ground-floor garage that would use stackers and a valet to cram 90 cars into a space just over 14,000 square feet in size. This hotel would be located about two blocks from the edge of the Downtown Precise Plan area, and about eight blocks from Courthouse Square. While that distance may be a bit far for some, the added foot traffic that such a hotel would undoubtedly bring would provide a badly needed boost to businesses along Broadway, especially those between Beech and Main streets.

Hotels are an important part of a city’s makeup, and although Redwood City does have its share of them, it doesn’t necessarily have hotels where they are needed most — in its downtown. One or more downtown hotels could provide a much-needed boost to Redwood City’s budget, and might even help retailers to see Redwood City’s downtown as a viable place to set up shop. Although those of us who live in Redwood City are unlikely to check in to a hotel in our downtown, the benefits one could bring would make the city better for all of us.

Greg Wilson is the creator of Walking Redwood City, a blog inspired by his walks throughout Redwood City and adjacent communities. He can be reached at greg@walkingRedwoodCity.com. Follow Greg on Twitter @walkingRWC.