Category Archives: Monterey Herald

Durell Delay

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Did they ever solve the water intrusion at the Holman’s building? Is it the same soil conditions as this one with more underground parking?

Durell Hotel

After ongoing complaints by residents that it’s too large for its location, the developers behind Pacific Grove’s proposed Hotel Durell are once again working with the project’s architects to revise the hotel’s plans.

Proposed by property owner Nader Agha, the 125-room hotel would be located at 157 Grand Ave. on the block where the Holman Building is and where the Grand Central Station building currently stands. Plans for the future development that have already been revised include a restaurant, two conference rooms and an 88-space valet parking garage on the bottom level.

Durell Delay

Greene Mansion For Sale Again

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Price is just $999,000 Which is 000,666 upside down. Something to think about considering it’s previous owner.

361 Lighthouse Kinkade

While his large ornate manor has taken on various different identities in the past – from a Mexican restaurant to an art gallery – its most recent incarnation was as a retail operation featuring luxury goods and antique consignment.

In November 2016 the mansion’s latest owner Jill Gifford purchased the property for $1.1 million. Then in December of 2017, Gifford, 47, along with her companion Benjamin Childs were found shot to death inside her Mesa, Arizona home. Gifford’s ex-husband, Bruce Gifford, was also found dead from a gunshot wound. Local news at the time reported it was being investigated as a murder-suicide.

Greene Mansion For Sale Again

Short Term Rental Initiative Goes To City

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Tar And Feather

Council members will decide between adopting the ordinance without alteration or immediately ordering an election, at which time the ordinance would be submitted to a vote by city voters during the November 2018 election. Their third option would be to direct city staff to prepare an analysis of the initiative’s business and fiscal impact.

“If I was going to think consistency and go with how city has acted in past, I suspect the council will lean toward putting it on the ballot,” he added.

While the item’s agenda report estimated getting the initiative on the ballot would cost from $58,206 to $77,608, Coletti said the city is confusing the total cost for an election with the cost of adding a single item to an existing ballot and that it would actually be much less.

“As an example, it only cost the city $8,500 to add Measure P (the unsuccessful admissions tax) to the November, 2016 ballot,” said Coletti.

Short Term Rental Initiative Goes To City

New Eateries

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Two with sidewalk cages that were bakeries long ago. One was the Fighting Favaloros which closed again for reasons unknown. Perhaps more of that family time they talk about. Other was Mauricios. Last one is the first ‘pub’ allowed in P.G. Grab a fork and go.

PG Menu

Among three new restaurant establishments opening on downtown’s main thoroughfare in mid-April is The Monarch Pub & Restaurant, the first pub ever in the state’s last dry town. The new establishment, which will be located at 617 Lighthouse Ave. where the 17th Street Grille used to reside, will join fine dining restaurants Wild Fish and Poppy Hall. The former, which will feature locally-caught fish and seafood and farm-to-table cuisine will be located at 545 Lighthouse Ave., the old location of Favaloro’s Big Night Bistro while the latter will take the spot where longtime eatery Mauricio’s was at 589 Lighthouse Ave.

Price spotting – Monarch pub looks best if one is real hungry.

  • $10 for some mixed veggies at Poppy Hall
  • $9.95 for a turkey burger at Monarch
  • $32 for Bouillabaisse at Wild Fish

New Eateries

Wharf Marketplace Closes

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People were not buying the most expensive vegetables in the county. Surprised?

Wharf Marketplace

It was back in December that Rick Antle, president and CEO of Tanimura & Antle, the employee owned family farm company that owns the cafe/coffee house/specialty market, said it was time to sell the space. The property located at 209 Figueroa St. in Monterey includes 3,701 square-feet of retail space. It’s up for sale for $2.09 per square foot plus triple net charges. Antle said that going into the venture, management had expected produce and local sales to be a larger percentage of the profit but instead it became heavily skewed toward the cafe, which isn’t the company’s main focus.

Wharf Marketplace Closes

Escape Room Fad Comes To Monterey

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Thirty dollars per person to be in a locked room for an hour. Cheaper than a North Fremont street motel, but not quite as scary.

So what is an escape room? It has been described as a one-hour adrenaline rush and out-of-the-box thinking adventure.

People enter a locked room (but not really locked) and are given one hour to solve puzzles that reveal the key to get out of the room. It’s good family fun, Christina Riddoch said. “The experience has been great,” she said. “It’s one hour of getting out of yourself.”

Escape Room Fad Comes To Monterey

Violence Threats Found At P.G. High

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By the looks of the grammar and writing style, it could be a P.G. High student, possibly a junior.

Police investigators are looking into multiple written threats left in bathrooms and the girls locker room since March 1 at the Pacific Grove High School campus that allude to plans for a possible school shooting.

The first one, from a photo taken March 1 read: “Imma shoot up this school just wait on it … my shooter, he already got a plan.”

Violence Threats Found At P.G. High

Kampe Crys Insufficiency Asks STRs To Save The City

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Do these businesses in the residential areas have full ADA access like real businesses? What about safety items like fire sprinklers?

Pacific Grove continues to grapple with a revenue shortfall, one that the city’s newly revised short-term rental program is meant to diminish Mayor Bill Kampe said in his State of the City address on Tuesday night.

That’s where the topic of short-term rentals came in with Kampe providing a short history of the city’s program that started in 2011 and was expected to generate $200,000 a year in revenue but now exceeds $1 million in transient occupancy tax. On Feb. 21, the city council passed an ordinance 4-1 that amended the city’s new short-term rental policy adopted in December to include a lottery system, which functions to get the number of STRs down from 290 to 250 and make it so that only 15 percent of housing per block is dedicated to such rentals.

Kampe Crys Insufficiency Asks STRs To Save The City

Mauricio’s Gets Evicted

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No reason given.

After 14 years at the same location on Lighthouse Avenue, longtime Pacific Grove eatery Mauricio’s will serve up its last dish this Sunday.

That’s according to owners Mauricio Mendoza and his wife Luz who confirmed that they were asked to vacate the property at 589 Lighthouse Ave. last December by owners, the Charles F. Giles Family Trust. A message to the Trust seeking comment wasn’t returned.

Mauricio’s Gets Evicted

There Goes The Neighborhood

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An “upscale” recycled attic junk store is opening south of Sinex, an an area usually filled with normal businesses. Looks like high priced garage sale items.

The theatrical production company’s new store called the Neverland Benefit Shop will feature donated fine furnishings, artwork, designer-wear, household items and other collectibles. All proceeds from the shop will benefit PacRep’s non-profit and educational programs, keep ticket prices down and help the company fund its productions.

“We’re trying to make it medium to high-end – sort of upscale,” said PacRep Founder/Executive Director Stephen Moorer. “It’s not a dollar store kind of thrift shop.”

There Goes The Neighborhood